Alba's Spaghetti al Limone
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This spaghetti al limone is for lovers. Start the sauce by browning butter with crushed garlic — just until it smells like sweet hazelnuts — then add lots of lemon juice and zest and a showering of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Adam Leonti, the chef of Alba in Hollywood, calls this dish made for two “date-night spaghetti.”
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer.
In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat with the crushed garlic and gently brown the butter until it smells sweet like hazelnuts, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and moving quickly add the lemon juice, zest, parsley, black pepper and espelette to the butter. The lemon juice will stop the butter from continuing to brown. Set the pan aside.
Cook the spaghetti: Bring the pot back to full boil. Cook the pasta until al dente, approximately 9 minutes (read instructions on box for individual pasta makers’ times). When the pasta has been cooked, remove from the water with tongs, reserving the cooking water, and place the spaghetti in the reserved limone-butter pan, with the addition of a 1/2 cup of pasta water.
Return the sauté pan with the sauce, pasta and addition of pasta water to medium heat. Reduce the sauce with the spaghetti in the pan. When the spaghetti and sauce begin to look thick and creamy, about 5 minutes, add the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Turn off the heat and season with salt to taste. Serve immediately.
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