Sacramento Digs Gardening: Lemon plus herbs plus pasta = delicious

Lemony pasta — It's pasta that's almost soup, and it's very lemony. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Honoring Meyer lemon season means more than baking, as fun as that is. I got it into my head the other day that I wanted to cook something with lemons and pasta, and started digging around for ideas.

A lot of the recipes I found use heavy cream as a base for the sauce, but that would upstage a Meyer, which is much less tart than Eureka or Lisbon lemons.

This pasta dish, adapted from a New York Times recipe, has broth and a mix of herbs for the sauce base, along with the lemon zest and juice. The lemon flavor shines through beautifully.

As accompaniment, I made a simple green salad topped with a few pieces of shrimp that were quickly sautéed in lemon juice and olive oil. It made a full meal for two of us, with leftovers of the pasta, but the protein alongside is completely optional. Serve the pasta in big bowls, with soup spoons to scoop up the noodles and broth. It's not quite soup, though it could be if you doubled the broth.

Herbs, two lemons, noodles and cheese — Just a few ingredients drive the flavors in this dish.

Pasta with Meyer lemon and herbs

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients:

2 to 3 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth (try to avoid a vegetable broth that's tomato-y)

1 or 2 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly smashed

Grated zest of 2 small Meyer lemons, or 1 large

1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice, plus more to taste

Coarse sea salt or kosher salt

8 ounces short pasta, or pappardelle broken into pieces, or "no-yolk" noodles (my package called them "dumplings")

3 tablespoons chopped mint leaves

2 tablespoons chopped marjoram leaves

1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed, or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh fennel fronds or tarragon

Extra-virgin olive oil

Freshly coarse-ground black pepper

Mild cheese for grating or crumbling: Mexican cojita, Parmesan or feta

Lemon zest in a red spoon — Is this enough zest? Probably, but it doesn't hurt to have
a little extra, maybe to sprinkle on the finished dish.

Instructions:

Pour the broth into a small saucepan. Add the garlic clove(s) and bring broth to a boil. Over medium-high heat, reduce the broth to about half.

Remove the garlic, chop it and set it aside. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice. Season to taste -- aim for a well-seasoned broth, since this is the sauce base. Keep the broth warm over very low heat.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt the water well and add the pasta. After 5 minutes, scoop out a 1/2 cup or so of pasta water and set it aside. Cook the pasta until al dente -- this was just 5 minutes anyway for my noodles.

Drain the pasta, shake it, then return it to the pot. Put the pot over low heat and add the lemony broth. Stir in the chopped garlic, the mint, marjoram and fennel seeds (or chopped fennel fronds or tarragon), and add just a touch of olive oil. The pasta should be well coated and lemony -- it will soak up some of the broth in the process.

Taste and add some freshly ground black pepper and, if desired, more lemon juice and salt.

Ladle the pasta, with some of the broth, into warmed bowls. Grate or crumble some cheese (but not too much) over the top, sprinkle with a bit more olive oil and grind additional black pepper as a final touch.

Serve with slices of warmed baguette.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes gardening Sacramento cooking farmers markets herbs backyard produce produce management lemons citrus fruit Meyer lemons

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Garden checklist for week of April 19

After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!

* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

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