The other night I created a really delish (and Super lemon-y!) Lemon Cheese-Cream Pasta dish, and as it is an Original Elisse Recipe, I am writing it up here! There are lots of recipes for “Pasta al Limone” online, but this is THE most lemony pasta dish Ever! My motto is that if you’re gonna do it, DO IT RIGHT! For one example, IMHO, Vodka Sauce needs to taste and smell like Vodka! LOL And, if you use Kosher ingredients, it’s #Kosher, too! If you need a good hit of summery, lemony joy in the dead of a freezing-cold winter, this dish oughta do it!
For this dish I used a unique, artisan Lemon Pasta & that wonderful Italian Panna (heavy cream) I get from the excellent “Cooking with Nonna” online store: “Bottega Della Nonna”; if you order PLEASE use my link here, so I will get “Nonna Points”: https://i.refs.cc/fpu396rO?smile_ref=eyJzbWlsZV9zb3VyY2UiOiJzbWlsZV91aSIsInNtaWxlX21lZGl1bSI6IiIsInNtaWxlX2NhbXBhaWduIjoicmVmZXJyYWxfcHJvZ3JhbSIsInNtaWxlX2N1c3RvbWVyX2lkIjo4OTQ4MTE1NTV9 IMPORTANTE: Italian Panna comes in small, shelf-stable boxes, and you seriously need that Panna to make authentic Italian dishes like “Tortellini alla Panna”- USA “heavy cream” is like water compared to Panna!
I also used the wonderful, and extremely potent, Boyajian Lemon Oil, Israeli Dead Sea Salt from 424 Below Sea Level, that I got in my fabulous monthly box of Israeli goodies from Lev HaOlam: https://www.levhaolam.com/, Vietnamese Phu Quoc Pepper (McCormick, from Walmart!), & my house-made Israeli-Moroccan Preserved Lemons! 
Israeli-Moroccan Preserved Lemons are OUTRAGEOUSLY DELICIOUS, and SUPER EASY to make- they are, basically, cut-up lemons in salt in a jar. You can make them yourself (two good recipes are: https://forward.com/food/recipes/350743/recipe-moroccan-preserved-lemons/ and https://www.davidlebovitz.com/moroccan-preser-1/), or, if you don’t have a month or two to wait, LOL, buy them on amazon! I make them, and we always have a jar on hand, as they are SO good with almost everything!
I started by cooking up a pot of that artisan Lemon Pasta from Bottega della Nonna al dente- “to the tooth”. It is super-long, as you can see from the photos, and has a lovely, light, lemony flavor. While it was boiling in its salted water, I began making the sauce. Note that I do everything to taste, so there are no hard-and-fast measurements. And IMHO that’s the way to do it! Taste, taste, taste! I began by sautéing, in a non-stick pan, several smashed and then chopped cloves of garlic, & a good measure of dried chopped parsley, in Really Good Olive Oil. (Bottega della Nonna has GREAT ones!) Then I added lemon juice, grated lemon peel, citrus pepper, cracked Vietnamese Pho Quoc pepper (Walmart now has McCormick’s!), and Israeli Dead Sea Salt from 424 Below Sea Level. I tasted it, and when I got it the way I liked it- really lemony & flavorful- I took the pan off the heat and let it cool. After it was room temperature, I added about 1/2 of a small box of that amazeballs Italian Panna (Italian Heavy Cream) that I have only been able to find in the USA at Bottega della Nonna! I whipped in the Panna until the sauce was smooth, and added some bits of green onion and hot peppers– again, you do this to taste- YOUR taste! When the pasta was done, I plopped it into a large bowl and added about 2 drops of that Boyajian Lemon Oil (it is VERY potent- you only need a drop or two), and tossed it around. Then I added a big handful of grated Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, and tossed it around some more to melt the cheese into the pasta. Finally, I added the lemon sauce and tossed it around some more. Then I tasted it, and topped it with more cracked black pepper, some more green onion bits, and small pieces of my house-made Israeli-Moroccan Preserved Lemons. And OMG was it good! NOTE: If you REALLY want to impress yourself- and everyone else you are serving- rub a drop or two of that Boyajian Lemon Oil around the rim of the plate… the scent of lemons will thrill you to the core! That stuff is summer in a bottle! (Do that when you make Chicken or Veal Piccata, too…)
- Ingredients:
- Pasta of your choice; I used Lemon Pasta from Bottega della Nonna
- Boyajian Pure Lemon Oil
- Sauce:
- Olive Oil
- Cloves of garlic, smashed & chopped
- Chopped Parsley, fresh or dried
- Lemon Juice
- Grated Lemon Peel
- Citrus Pepper
- Cracked Black Pepper (I used McCormick’s Phu Quoc Vietnamese Pepper, from Walmart)
- Kosher Salt (I used Israel Dead Sea Salt from 424 Below Sea Level via LevHaOlam)
- Panna (Italian Heavy Cream). I get it in little shelf-stable boxes from Bottega della Nonna
- Grated Parmesan & Mozzarella cheeses
- Chopped green onions (scallions)
- Chopped hot peppers – optional. Add them if you enjoy hot peppers, as I do!
- Bits of Preserved Lemons (I used my house-made ones, but you can buy these on amazon; they are often referred to as Moroccan Preserved Lemons)
Please let me know in the comments if you’ve tried my recipe- and what you think about it!- or if you have another Pasta al Limone favorite!
