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; 40 g grated parmesan

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

Spoon cost

Time ●○○○○ Anytime

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.

Before you start

Get these into the state the recipe asks for first — the steps that use them won't wait.

The parmesan grated and the lemons zested and juiced before the water boils — the sauce reduces in minutes and the pasta is tossed for only 15–20 seconds before serving — there's no pausing to grate cheese

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 Hazan's classic, and hard to improve on.

Make it a meal. This lemony pasta is a natural bed for a lemony protein — best of all Chicken Piccata, whose caper-and-lemon cutlets are the same bright family and are traditionally served over exactly this kind of pasta; lay the cutlets on top and spoon a little of their pan sauce over both. For a no-fuss weeknight protein, Amylu Roasted Garlic, Fontina, Parmesan & Pecorino Romano chicken meatballs are excellent — fully cooked, so roast them at 400°F for 15–18 minutes until browned and hot through, then toss the hot meatballs with a squeeze of lemon, a little grated parmesan, and chopped parsley so they echo the sauce, and nestle them on top. A simple seared fish or shrimp works too.

Provenance: adapted from Marcella Hazan's fettuccine al limone in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. (That book link is an affiliate link — as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.)

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

Easier, if you like

Boxed fettuccine is perfect here — no need to make fresh.
A good citrus zester makes quick work of four lemons — the one in the Tool Kit catches the zest as you grate, so none scatters across the counter.

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.