Friday Night Emergency - Lemon Sauce (Al Limone)

The Event - Friday 22 February 2013

We have friends in need.  A family in crisis is a family that needs casseroles.

Or baked pasta.  Lasagne?

I feel slightly disloyal, but I always have Donati's veal mince in the freezer, so I use Allegro al Dente's Bolognese recipe (a.k.a Casareccia al ragu or, translated, 'Casareccia with meat sauce'), which asks for veal and is thus my regular bolognese recipe.

In the wake of us cooking for love, the kitchen is a mess

And I use Stephanie's Lasagne assembly and béchamel sauce instructions.  Because I always do.

There's nothing quite like cooking for love.  But cooking without Susan has taken me offline this week.

And it's been a busy week on the home front: 

• We made the Bolognese sauce on Tuesday night.  I thawed a kilo of mince so nearly tripled the recipe.
• We saw the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Wednesday.
• We had work functions last night.  Thursday.

So finally tonight, Friday, we boiled lasagne sheets, made béchamel and assembled two trays of lasagne for loved ones into whose life a little rain is falling.

With the lasagne safely in the oven, we realise there's none for us.  What's for dinner!?

It's late.  We're hungry.  We're tired.  In the wake of us cooking for love, the kitchen is a mess.

The Foraging

Stephanie, Rinaldo, Jill and Terry are all well and good, but I reach for Susan in an emergency.

And I find another classic, almost ingredientless recipe on page 81:

Lemon Sauce

Al Limone

We have lemons from My Architect's parent's tree, left over cream from Al Salmone (11 February 2013).  Butter?  It all went into the béchamel.  We have margarine?  It will have to do.  And parsley grows in on the terrace.

I tell My Architect to fetch one of Susan's pasta choices from the pantry: tagliatelle or linguine.  

Lasagne sheets one minute ...

'Tagliatelle' he states authoritatively.  And he sets about slicing up the left over lasagne sheets accordingly.

Waste not, want not.

... tagliatelle the next!

The Cooking

In true Susan-style, this is rapid.  

Ingredients assembled

First, I assemble the ingredients among the lasagne debris.  In other words, I take the margarine and cream from the fridge, pluck lemons from the fruit bowl and postpone fetching parsley for now ...

I grate the lemon peel.

Susan says to do this finely, but I can't stand using those bubble shaped graters where everything sticks to the inside of the grater.  So I use my parmesan cheese grater, which is not particularly fine.

Grating the lemon peel is the only technical part of the recipe so listen up:

Be VERY careful to grate only the yellow peel

Be VERY careful not to cut into the pith of the lemon as the sauce will be very bitter.  Only grate the yellow peel.

I'll let lemons in my photo tell the story of how careful I was.

Melt the butter (sigh, margarine) in a small saucepan.  Add the lemon peel.   Cook it for two minutes but don't let the peel fry or the butter turn brown.  

Add the cream and heat it, but don't let it boil.

Susan says to add some pasta water.  She always says that.  But the sauce looks thin enough to me and I don't have any pasta water, soooo ...

... we're done!

Quick!  Fetch some pars--leeey!!!

Back to Susan's instructions, I throw the pasta in a serving bowl and pour the sauce over it.  

Argh!  Of course the pasta's cold ...

So into another saucepan it goes.  Heated and served in a jiffy, topped with chopped parsley.

Voila!

The Verdict

We've had better.

The sliced lasagne sheets were a bit doughy.  I lost some sauce in the unplanned pasta reheat - could've done with some pasta water after all.

And did substituting margarine detract?  I'll have to cook this one again some time, faithfully, to find out.  Do it all properly next time.

Still, I like to think that Susan, with her evident love of using leftovers, would be pleased.

It was improved by Parmesan (goes without saying) and drizzling olive oil and lemon juice over it.

In our spartan student days, lemon pasta was often on the menu.  But, again, I used Allegro al Dente's recipe, Taglionlini al limone e panna,  which has a few more ingredients.  

In a nutshell, Rinaldo, Jill and Terry add white wine, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and black pepper to Susan's recipe.

I can vouch for the cayenne pepper.  It makes the dish!

And they suggest serving it with a shot glass of frozen vodka.

Perfect in an emergency.

Want to try this at home?

Al Limone

1 large lemon

25g butter

200ml single cream

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1. Finely grate the yellow bit of the lemon peel, but not the white bit or the sauce will be too bitter
2. Melt the butter
3. Add the peel and cook for 2 minutes but don't let the peel fry or the butter turn brown
4. Add the cream and heat it but don't let it boil
5. Add a ladle of pasta water to thin the sauce
6. Put cooked pasta (tagliatelle or linguine) in a serving bowl, pour the sauce over, mix well and serve topped with pasta