IT'S CHRISTMAS. YOU'LL BE NEEDING LEMONS.
For your cocktails, your seafood, your sanity, and for this rather divine little pasta with lemon and cream. Have a sunny, sharp and acidic Christmas, everyone!
Let’s face it, you’re going to feel like your very own personal turducken any day now - and lemons are the antidote. To everything!
Lemons are sunshine. They’re light and bright and fresh and forthright, adding acidity and tang. They spark up seafood, elevate crumbed and fried food, and are mandatory at a barbecue.
Which brings me to this rather divine little dish, that you might like to keep up your sleeve over the next week or so.
Pasta al limone.
Luxurious and sophisticated, the very fine, thin pasta is bathed in a creamy sauce with the bite of lemon zest and juice and the richness of parmigiano. It’s bright and summery, while at the same time rich and creamy.
Simple food, for a complex time.
Look for tagliolini (very fine tagliatelle), or the Piemontese regional variation called tajarin. Failing that, good old linguine would be great.
Pasta al limone is the perfect foil to way-too-much turkey, duck, chicken, pork, ham, yes, but it also has the potential to be the perfect vehicle.
Shred a little left-over Christmas ham or turkey and toss through the pasta before adding the cream.
Or throw in some left-over prawns and lobster, should there be such things lying around.
But really, it’s enough on its own. Ignore my faint attempts at being helpful, and keep it brain-dead simple - just how we like it at this time of year.
Pasta with lemon and cream
Tagliolini will cook in 3 minutes, so prep the wine reduction first, and have everything, including people, ready to go. Serves 3 -4.
150 ml white wine, prosecco or champagne
300g tagliolini
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
2 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
150 ml crème fraiche or cream
2 tbsp lemon juice
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
2 tbsp finely grated parmigiano (eg microplaned)
Extra pepper and lemon zest for serving
First, bring the wine or champagne to the boil and simmer until reduced by half.
When you’re ready to eat, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water until al dente – tender but firm to the bite.
Melt the butter in a frying pan over low heat, and gently cook the lemon zest for 1 minute.
Add the wine, stirring, then add the crème fraiche and simmer for a minute or two, stirring, without allowing it to boil (it will sort of seethe).
Add the lemon juice, sea salt and pepper, stirring.
Drain the pasta and add to the sauce with any water still clinging to it, and toss well, shaking the pan until the pasta is well-coated.
Turn out onto warm pasta plates and shower with grated parmigiano, black pepper and a little extra grated lemon zest. Serve hot.
# The pasta will hoover up the sauce like crazy. If you think you have too much sauce, you haven’t. (Code for ‘have more cream on hand, just in case’). Or take it to the table with an extra dollop of crème fraiche on top. Salmon roe, caviar, fresh dill or thyme, also good.
Thank you for reading, conversing, responding, and being part of our little food-first community, as we meander towards the end of my second year of doing a weekly newsletter. (And special thanks to Terry for the caviar. Must be Christmas).
It’s very hard to put a value on something like this (especially when it is free!), but I have so much fun doing it, I hope to keep it going until either you or I get bored.
No matter where you are and what is happening, take care of yourself by eating well and by not getting your knickers in a twist. Have a good one, J.
I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s about time, folks. Here’s to 2023.
Thank you for the work you put in to the newsletter. I enjoy the content and your irreverent tone; and then the grounding depth of sentiment you express at the very end in your acknowledgement of country and the First Nations people.
Thank you Jill. As a long term fan, and owner/user of your cookbooks, I am loving your return. I think the pasta might be just the thing after the ham party with my family yesterday. And before the duck party tomorrow!