Lemon-Herb Zucchini Fettuccine

The last lemon post (for now).  I used my last lemon in this main dish recipe from best bites.  It was pretty tasty and quick to make.  I was afraid that the whole dish might be too overpowering lemony since it uses 2 lemons and the zest of one.  That's a lot of lemon flavor!  But it wasn't overpowering, it was lemony, but the basil balanced it out.  It needed a little more salt.  But other than that it was delicious.  Also, if you decide to try this recipe, mix everything together, add the cheese and quickly stir.  Otherwise you will get lumps of cheese stuck together.  Take a look at the cute bowl from Dan & Carey- very cute!  Thanks guys!


Lemon-Herb Zucchini Fettuccine
recipe by Our Best Bites

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 lemons
2 T Red Wine Vinegar
Olive Oil
1/2 lb Fettuccine
2 medium zucchini
1 C shredded parmesan cheese (about :)
5-6 cloves garlic
Fresh Basil (about 1/2 C)
Fresh Oregano (about 1/4 C) If you don’t have fresh oregano, just add a little dried.
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Prepare grill. You could also do this on the stove top in a skillet, or a grill pan.
Place chicken in a zip-lock bag with the juice of one lemon, a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Smoosh around and set bag aside while you get your other things ready. (If you’ve got time to spare, let the chicken marinade for 30 minutes, if you don’t, just take what you can get. I did mine for 15 min and it was great.)
Put the pot on the stove to boil water for the pasta. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, slice the zucchini in half length-wise. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Press, or finely mince garlic cloves. In a small sauce pan on the stove, place 1/4 C olive oil and add garlic. Turn burner onto low-med heat. It shouldn’t be popping and frying, it should just slowly warm, infusing the oil with the garlic and removing that zing fresh garlic has.
When water boils, add pasta and a spoonful of salt

Remove chicken from bag and salt and pepper both sides. Place chicken, and zucchini on grill.
While chicken and zuchs are grilling and pasta is boiling, chop herbs and get out cheese. Zest both lemons and juice the one that hasn’t been juiced.
See, now you’re all ready. When everything is done cookin’ you can throw it together! Keep an eye on that garlic. You DON’T want it to get brown and crispy. It should still look nice and white. Give it a stir. If it starts really cooking, just take it off the heat and set aside.
When zuch and chicken are done take them off the grill and chop ‘em up.
Reserve about 1/2 C pasta water. Drain pasta and immediately place in a big bowl. Place chopped zuch and chicken on top. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, cheese, herbs, and garlic-olive oil mixture. Just pile it all in there.

Meyers Lemons

All the recipes below specifically called for meyer lemons.  So my question is what's the difference between them and just regular grocery store lemons?  Well, when you put a meyer lemon side by side with a regular lemon you can really see the difference.  The meyer lemon is smoother and a darker lemon color.  They are also (by my taste test) a little sweeter and less bitter.  I think it might be because the skin is thinner so less of the bitter white part of the lemon.  I have one lemon left and was going to make some lemon ginger scones, but Cassandra beat me to it.  So I'm now looking for another good lemon recipe. Any ideas?

Lemon Vinaigrette

Continuing on the lemon week.  This was a lovely, sweet, tart flavorful dressing.  So much better than store bought and very easy to make.  As usual with salad dressing recipes, I cut the oil in half. Also I substituted white wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar, mainly because I didn't have any of the red.  Besides I always think white wine goes better with lemon. Otherwise I followed the recipe pretty exactly, although I only made a half recipe. I used it on a spinach strawberry salad.  Very nice.

Lemon Vinaigrette

2 1/2 Meyer Lemons (juiced for a total of 1/2 cup lemon juice)
2 Tablespoons Red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves
1 Tablespoon whole grain prepared mustard
1 Tablespoon dried italian herbs
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1/1/2 cups olive oil

Combine all ingredients except oil in a blender.  Pulse a few times to chop garlic thoroughly and mix ingredients together.  On low speed, slowly add olive oil to mixture in a steady stream.  Add oil until mixture has emulsified to a vinaigrette.  When completely blended, serve over salad.  Yield 1 pint

Lemon Tart

Second installment of lemon week, Lemon Tart.  I had found this recipe some time ago, but since it called specifically for a Meyer lemon I put it in the back of my mind.  I figured it was doubtful that I would be able to make it for awhile since down here in the boonies it's sometimes hard to find anything out of the ordinary.  But I was surprised to find a bag of 4 large, luscious looking Meyer lemons at my Walmart last week, which I immediately snatched up. So for the tart pastry, I used a recipe from my new King Arthur flour cookbook, it seemed a perfect pairing for a lemon tart.  It was a basic pastry recipe with a tablespoon sugar, some lemon zest and a teaspoon of vanilla added.  The recipe doesn't address the issue of seeds, but I removed them before processing  I thought that even with intense blending, they might add a weird texture or make the mixture bitter.  Otherwise, I made it exactly as the recipe states.  Very easy and very delicious, so delicious in fact that I had to eat two pieces, just to make sure!

Lemon Tart

1 large meyer lemon cut into 8 pieces (seeds removed)

1 1/2 cup superfine sugar (I used regular sugar)

1 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

your favorite tart shell

Put all ingredients (except tart shell) into a blender and whirl like crazy!

Pour into tart shell

Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees (watch that the top does not burn)

(I also sprinkled the top with some powdered sugar to dress it up)