Lemony Egg Pasta

Anne requested this recipe. I made it for her last year and she really loved it. I made it when Richard was here, last week, and he loved it. It is about as simple and easy as they come, but it is quite good. Here's how my recipe came about.



I saw a recipe in Food & Wine for Tandy Lemon-Egg Soup with Tiny Meatballs, a soup that was a variation on the Greek soup avgolemono. I made and it was quite good. The tiny meatballs were made with ground turkey. I made it once but thought I would make it again, though I never did, but I stuck the recipe in a drawer (as I am want to do: see my Cookbook of the Day entry on my lost carrot cake recipe.)

One day I had some ground turkey but I didn't want soup. I thought of this recipe and decide to adapt it to a pasta recipe. Well, my Lemony Egg Pasta with Turkey Meatballs was great. I made the pasta several times in the next few weeks, dumping the meatballs all together. Everyone who ate it loved it. The next month, similar recipes started showing up in every magazine from Domino to Cottage Living. (Both magazine subsequently folded but I have no reason to believe it was the pasta.)



This is painfully easy to make. This recipe works will with a fine spaghetti or with a wider linguine. Add a good bit of salt to the water as you want the pasta to be well seasoned. The butter coats the pasta making the eggs stick better. The heat of the pasta cooks the yolks, so do stir it as soon as you incorporate the yolks. I sprinkle the zest on at the end and finish off with pepper.

Lemony Egg Pasta

1 package of pasta (spaghetti or linguine)
1 stick butter, melted
2 egg yolks
2 lemons, zested then juiced
1/4 cup grated Pecorino or other hard cheese

Boil the pasta in a large pot of heavily salted water about 8 minutes.

Slightly beat the egg yolks and stir in the cheese and lemon juice.

When the pasta is done, drain the cooking water.

Add the butter and stir, coating the pasta.

Add the egg mixture and stir until fully coated.

Sprinkle with the zest.

This is great for your vegetarian buddies and a fine summery dish.