Classic Italian lemon pasta in its simplest form. This pasta al limone recipe is made with just 3 ingredients and ready as quickly as you can boil water.
2organic lemonsabout 2-3 tbsp of FRESH lemon juice
salted pasta water
1cupfreshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions. RESERVE PASTA WATER once pasta has been cooked
While water is boiling, fill a separate large pot with warm to hot tap water. Set aside. You will use this pot to stir all of the ingredients together
Cut a cold stick of salted grass-fed butter into 8 equal pieces. Set to the side.
On the small hole side of a box grater, grate 1 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Set aside.
A minute before the pasta has finished cooking, dump the water from the secondary warmed pot into the sink. The pot should now be nice and warm and ready to receive the ingredients.
With tongs, remove noodles from the cooking pot and transfer them into the warmed reserved pot. It is okay if some pasta water makes its way into the mixing pot as well. (You will need pasta water to make the sauce) RESERVE AT LEAST 1 CUP OF SALTY STARCHY PASTA WATER.
Add 5-6 pieces of the cold butter and stir.
Place a mesh sieve above the pot of pasta. Hand squeeze 3 lemon halves over the sieve so their juices flow into the pot and the seeds are caught by the sieve. Start with about 3 tbsp of lemon juice, typically 1 lemon will contain 2 tbsp of juice depending on the size and juicienss of the lemon. Place the lemon halves (now without juice) into the pot with the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly to emulsify the sauce, bashing the lemon with the back of a wooden spoon to release the lemon oils into the pasta.
Taste for balance and preference. Add more lemon juice, butter, and pasta water to correct flavor and consistency. The goal is for a balanced lemony butter flavor with a glossy creamy sauce.
Plate the pasta with a used lemon half as garnish. Top with a heap (about 1/4 cup of cheese per serving) of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. The cheese will slightly thicken the sauce as it mixes in with the pasta. Buon Appetito!
Video
Notes
Resist the urge to add lemon zest to this dish. It might seem like it would enhance the flavor but the zest and rind can be too intesne and sometimes too bitter. Since this sauce is really just ingredients warmed (rather than actually cooked) the rind does not have time to break down.
Be sure to warm the pot you are mixing your pasta and sauce in. A cold pot will reduce the temperature of the ingredients and halt them from incorporating and smoothy combining. The pot does not need to be blazing hot. I like to fill a pot with hot water and let it sit as i am preparing the dish. I then empty the water just before the pasta is finished cooking. That way my pot is warm and ready to receive the pasta and the rest of the ingredients.