Creamy limoncello Pasta

A forkful of creamy limoncello pasta is what happiness is about. A bright yellow dish like the sun with lots of lemon, lush oat cream, fancy thyme, and of course a shot of limoncello. You just need five fresh ingredients for a simple recipe that will immediately transport you to Capri and the Italian Amalfi coast.

I have eaten this dish for the first-time long time ago, when I was a young teenager. I was lucky enough to go on a school trip to the Amalfi Coast and visited Capri. For lunch we went to a restaurant with a stunningly blue sea view. I couldn’t believe my luck. I still remember the intense colours and smells of all the Mediterranean plants that adorns the coast. By then, I had the thin Napoleonian pizza at every meal and as daily snack, so I pretended to be more of an interesting person by going for something different at the restaurant…or maybe my teachers begged us, the naughty students, to try something else? I can’t remember but what I do know, and it is crystal clear in my memory as it happened yesterday, is that I ordered lemon pasta, very suspiciously.

It felt something incredibly exotic as it often does when you try Italian food from a different region than the one you are from. I was quite impressed overall with the dish but completely forgot about it till a colleague of mine, fast forward 15 years later, told me she was making this pasta for dinner.

Boom. I remembered Capri, my schoolmates, laughs, crazy amounts of thin pizzas, and the intense blue sea. I could smell lemon trees and see Capri’s narrow roads in just a second.

I went home and made lemon pasta that night. Every Italian has always spaghetti in the cupboard and a lemon in the fridge. As my mum would tell you, you simply can’t go without it.

My friend at work mentioned she had cream in the pasta as well, I thought this sounded more of a foreign take on the dish than Italian – who knows why but pasta abroad has always a creamy element! But I had cream in the fridge so no one could stop me.

I decided to go big or go home and added a shot of limoncello as well. 15 minutes later, pasta was ready, and I was on holidays in the sweet Amalfi coast at the first forkful.

This dish really speaks of holidays.

Lazy days in the sun at the beach, sweaty hikes at the mountains, or long check lists to tick off in a new city to explore. No matter what holiday you like, I will join you. I do love holidays hehe!

I am currently with my family at the beach in Emilia Romagna, near Bologna. It’s a huge family reunion, we hadn’t had one since my brother and I were kids. Every hour feels special and it’s surreal to be surrounded by so many loved ones. So many things to talk about with breaks of comfortable silences, napping or reading a book.

Time has assumed a whole new shape, running fast and slow at the same time. I am lost in this bubble forgetting what life was before holidays and dreading what life will be when I am back. I feel sometimes I am not living enough in the moment, so I fear a little and then anchor myself back in time looking at the smiles of my nephew and niece who grow up so fast.

If only life was as simple as a pasta dish bright like the yellow sun. We’d always have long naps like cats stretching in the sun, we’d sit at the dinner table for hours chatting and laughing every day, we’d smell hot air scented with lemon next door. But yet, if every day was as simple, we might have not even noticed it. Holidays are a special time, and we can always bring their flavours back at home with us.

I hope you’ll try my creamy limoncello pasta dish wherever you are – holidays or not holidays, this dish will work its magic.