Al Limone
Butter, lemon, and Parmigiano. From the Amalfi Coast, where the lemons are so fragrant they define the landscape. Three ingredients, and every one of them must be excellent.
Pasta al limone comes from Campania and the Amalfi Coast, where the sfusato amalfitano lemon grows in terraced gardens above the sea. The sauce is a simple emulsion of butter, lemon, and Parmigiano, built on the acid and aroma of the lemon, not on cream or egg. The original version uses only the lemon's zest and a squeeze of juice, relying on butter and pasta water to carry the flavour. Cream is a later addition, common outside Italy, and entirely unnecessary.
Only a few ingredients
Butter
Cold butter into a cold pan, then low heat. Let it melt slowly. The milk solids should stay pale, not brown.
Lemon
Zest first, grated directly into the melting butter. Then a squeeze of juice, not more than half a lemon per two people. The zest is the flavour; the juice is the edge.
Pasta Water
A generous splash. Off the heat. The water and butter emulsify into a creamy, opaque sauce.
Parmigiano Reggiano
Off heat. Grated fine. Stir until it melts into the sauce. It should tighten and thicken immediately.
Black Pepper
Freshly ground. Just before serving.
No cream. The emulsion is the technique.
Cream in pasta al limone is a sign that the cook does not trust the butter and water to do their work. They will. The combination of butter, pasta water, and Parmigiano produces a creamy emulsion that carries lemon flavour more cleanly than cream ever could. Cream muffles the lemon; the butter-and-water emulsion lets it through.
Spaghetti
The standard choice. The strands carry the light emulsion well.
Linguine
Flat surface picks up more of the butter-and-lemon coating.
Ready to cook?
These sources we trust. Each one makes it correctly.
Other sauces from the same region
Marinara
A Neapolitan sauce with no pretensions. Tomato, garlic, oil, basil, oregano, done in the time it takes to boil the pasta. Simplicity is not the same as easy.
Alle Vongole
The sea served on pasta. Clams, white wine, garlic, parsley, nothing added, nothing covered up.
Puttanesca
A bold, pungent sauce of Neapolitan street food. Built on tomatoes, olives, capers, and anchovies, complex, salty, assertive, and unapologetic.
La Genovese
A Neapolitan ragù built on time and onions. The beef is there, but the onions are the sauce, slow-cooked until they collapse entirely into something sweet, dark, and unlike anything else in Campania.
Colatura di Alici
Colatura from Cetara, the direct descendant of Roman garum. Added raw at the end. The anchovy does all the work.
Alla Carrettiera
Garlic, chili, parsley, and oil, with cherry tomatoes to distinguish it from aglio e olio. A cart-driver's sauce from Campania, designed to be made on the road.
Alla Nerano
Fried zucchini, aged provolone, basil, and starchy pasta water, a creamy sauce that contains no cream. From the fishing village of Nerano on the Amalfi Coast, made famous by Stanley Tucci.
Alla Natalina
Spaghetti from the Neapolitan countryside, anchovies melted into the oil, walnuts, pine nuts, sultanas, olives, and tomato. Salty, sweet, and completely surprising. The anchovies disappear. Their flavour stays.