Although the Tandem Tasters write books which include chefs’ recipes, they enjoy reading the many excellent cookbooks written by chefs. Two of our favorite reads is Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples. We especially enjoy the stories of Ruth’s pursuit of good food with MFK Fisher, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck and Danny Kaye.

The recipe for lemon pasta is so delicious that we are passing it along. Ruth enjoyed it at Danny’s home years ago. She did not ask him for the recipe, but kept perfecting until it was close to Danny’s original version. Now we tried it and love it. We all love pasta carbonara, and this creamy, cheesy and lemony pasta is as high on our list. We serve it with a simple green salad and a crisp California white wine.

Lemon Pasta
Ingredients
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 pound fresh egg fettuccine
2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
salt
freshly ground pepper
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method
Melt butter in a deep heavy 12 inch skillet and stir in the cream and lemon juice. Remove the skillet from the heat and keep it warm and covered.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente, 2-3 minutes.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking liquid and drain the pasta into a colander.

Add the pasta to the skillet with lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of the pasta cooking liquid and toss well. (Add more pasta cooking liquid 1 tablespoon at a time, if necessary to thin sauce.)

Season the pasta with salt and pepper and serve with Parmesan cheese.

Brenda C. Hill
International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association
Books By Hills Success Log Where & What in the World Blog

Finalist in the Writing and Publishing category of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, “$uccess, Your Path to a Su
ccessful Book”