Weeknight · One pan · About 20 minutes

Fettucine al Limone

Name: Fettucine al Limone
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 57 g butter; 240 ml heavy cream; 4 lemons; 30 ml lemon juice; 450 g fettuccine; Freshly grated parmesan, to serve

Marcella Hazan's fettuccine al limone — a silky lemon-cream sauce perfumed with the zest of four lemons, reduced just halfway so the pasta drinks it up. Elegant, bright, and on the table in twenty minutes.

~20 min total 1 pan 4 lemons

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Vegetarian

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Reduce the cream only halfway — the pasta drinks the rest. Boil the butter, cream, and lemon down to about half, no further, then toss the just-drained fettuccine in the pan over medium heat for 15–20 seconds so it absorbs the sauce. Add the cheese off the heat. It comes together in minutes, so have the pasta ready.

Easier, if you like

Boxed fettuccine is perfect here — no need to make fresh.
A microplane makes quick work of zesting four lemons.

Method

Cook's notes

Zest of four lemons is the soul of the dish — it perfumes the cream. Zest before you juice, and take only the yellow, not the bitter white pith.

Don't over-reduce the cream — leave it loose; the pasta absorbs it in the pan, and a too-thick sauce turns gluey.

Have everything ready — this is a five-minute sauce, so cook the pasta to just-firm and toss immediately.

A little grated parmesan tossed in at the end binds it. Marcella's classic, and hard to improve on.

Provenance: adapted from Marcella Hazan's fettuccine al limone.

Best with fresh pasta: a batch of homemade fettuccine makes it special — roll the sheets and cut them wide.

Make it gluten-free (it's already vegetarian)

Gluten-free: use a gluten-free fettuccine. Use a vegetarian parmesan (no animal rennet) if that matters to you.