Sunday morning was beautifully warm and sunny and we strolled up to the supermarket to stock up the kitchen. This was when we began our adventures. I could not find lemons and on enquiring, I was told lemons should be in on Wednesday and onions on Monday. Over the next two weeks, we learned when things were in stock along with finding a great butcher who was open until at least 10pm along with a vegetable seller with a little truck who appeared in one or two locations during the week. During some of these shopping excursions, I purchased an Amalfi lemon about the size of a grapefruit. This was the inspiration for the recipe.
On one of our final days, the extra-large lemon still very present by the fridge, I decided to create a pasta dish. I carefully peeled 2/3 of the lemon rind away and finly chopped it. I then took the remaining 1/3 and finly julienned it. I then peeled the lemon and broke up most of the fruit into small pearls of lemon.
I prepared some fresh pasta with oregano put some water on to boil. I created a small amount of sugar syrup with equal parts of water and sugar. Once it was clear I added the julienned lemon rind and some green peppercorns and let them simmer. I cooked off some prawns (sufficient for two people) with half a bulb of garlic finely minced, some fresh zucchini and small chili from the garden. I cooked the pasta with the finely chopped lemon rind and reduced the syrup until it was almost sticky. I drained the pasta, added it to the prawns and added the lemon pearls just before plating up. I then poured a small glass of vodka into the lemon sugar syrup and added a little salt. I then placed the candied rind on top of the dish and poured the Limoncello inspired sauce over the plate. The result was a dish now affectionately known as Limoncello gamberi Villa Donna Antonia con pasta limone. The presentation is not all it could be but I worked with what I had.
