Saturday, May 7, 2011

Pasta al limone

It was on our honeymoon that I discovered this exquisite Italian dish. We were visiting the beautiful, artistic city of Florence. I asked the receptionist to recommend me a restaurant downtown and he told me this one restaurant whose name, regretfully, I cannot recall, because he said it was "molto fiorentino", a very real Florence city restaurant. And indeed it was, and this dish we liked so much that I looked up different recipes online, finding this one the closet to the original we tried:
http://www.ricettepertutti.it/ricette.asp?prog=217
After a while not cooking it, I decided tonight to go ahead and make it again: I boiled in hot water with salt about 400 grams of paste farfalle (butterfly). In a pan I melt 50 grams of Irish butter and added on low the juice of 1 and 1/2 lemons, half a glass of whipping cream, sea salt and black pepper, basil and, very important, fresh chopped chives from the garden, and mixed it all up until I got a cream which I poured over the drained pasta. With dishes like this you realize and come to a full understanding of the level of civilization and refinement of Italy, which comes directly from ancient Rome. The superior balance of acidic citrusy flavours, chivy herbal freshness and soft creaminess transports you directly to the shades and lights of Florence streets where everything that's beautiful and sublime find its brilliant home:

No comments:

Post a Comment