While scouring the pasta aisle at the hypermarket the other day, I came across a range of flavoured pastas. Now, these aren’t like instant ramen which are regular noodles with a flavour sachet of some kind, nor were they the usual coloured varieties of pasta (green and red, which are supposedly spinach and tomato or beetroot coloured).

This particular brand of pasta, Catelli Bistro (it’s made in Canada by Ronzoni Foods, Montreal) comes in flavours like ‘sundried tomato and basil spaghettini’ (which I'd tried before) and ‘lemon pepper linguine' which is what I prepared today.

The recipe on the back of the pack was for a simple snow-pea and shrimp sauce, olive-oil based. I generally cook vegetarian at home. The relative lack of preparation -- no marination or gutting and cleaning -- and easier storage of vegetables gives me more flexibility (most meals are prepared last minute). Also my dad's a vegetarian and I have no great craving for meat on a daily basis.

The flavours of the pasta are the main attraction here, so smothering it in a heavy tomato or cream sauce is not a good idea. I decided to stick to a light olive oil sauce and adapt it with whatever I thought might go well with lemon. To complement the tartness of lemons I went for red bell pepper (capsicum), olives, fresh basil and parsley, with onion and garlic to add crunch and sweetness.

The olives were pre-sliced stuff I got at the market. I know, I know, they're not as nice as unpitted ones, but the last time I got some good Moroccan olives they were lovely but very salty and overpowered all other flavours (this was with the flavoured spaghettini). These cheap ones aren't as intense so they go better with this dish.

I used one large red bell pepper, both for colour and because unlike their green and yellow cousins, these are pretty mild. I cut the pepper into strips as you can see here, to go better with the linguine. Since it's a long, flat noodle-like pasta (but not as wide as fettucine) I kept the strips thin enough but not too thin. I wanted the vegetables to retain some crunch; if you cut them too fine they go limp.

The onion and garlic I cut up just like the peppers, long (the garlic was sliced along the length of the clove, and this turned out unexpectedly well. I'll tell you why later).