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Spaghetti with Lemon Pesto
This pasta dish is modeled on the spaghetti al pesto di limone that Giovanna Aceto made for us on her family’s farm in Amalfi, Italy. The lemons commonly available in the U.S. are more acidic than Amalfi’s lemons, so to make a lemon pesto that approximates the original, we use a little sugar to temper the flavor. For extra citrus complexity, we add lemon zest to the pasta cooking water; the oils from the zest lightly perfume the spaghetti, reinforcing the lemony notes of the pesto.
4
Servings
Tip
Don’t forget to remove the lemon zest from the boiling water before dropping in the pasta. If left in as the spaghetti cooks, the zest may turn the water bitter, and the strips are a nuisance to remove from the strands of cooked noodles.
25 minutes
Ingredients
-
4
lemons
-
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Directions
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01Using a vegetable peeler (preferably a Y-style peeler), remove the zest from the lemons in long, wide strips; try to remove only the colored portion of the peel, not the bitter white pith just underneath. You should have about ⅔ cup zest strips.
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July 31, 2023
delish!
recipe worked very well as written, tasted like meals I had in Sorrento.
June 10, 2023
I promised I’d save some for the kids. I may have lied
Kids meaning my nephew and his girlfriend are who are in their twenties. But I don’t know if there’s going to be any when they get back and thankfully I did a half recipe The lemon wasn’t overpowering. It was absolutely beautiful. The sauce was creamy. I will no longer equate pesto with green. I still love basil pesto but my goodness this was absolutely fabulous.
March 26, 2023
Tasty side dish
Made this twice - my lemon trees had a bumper crop I will miss it when the price of lemons goes out of sight but when they are in season we will enjoy great with chicken or salmon
December 9, 2022
It's a hit
A large family love it that its heavily requested!
October 28, 2022
Most Excellent
Best. Proof Simple can be better. Refreshing citrus notes. I tossed in a well grilled, coarsely chopped chicken breast before the chives to bump up the protein value.
Tried this last night. Relatively subtle but good sprinkled with a bit of extra Maldon salt. Might use a touch of red pepper in the pesto next time.
However, "remove the zest in long, wide strips" and "remove and discard the zest" are much easier said than done. Some suggested technique here would have been a big help.
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I do not see any nutrishinal info or calorie info