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A couple questions concerning zest

post #1 of 6
11/15/08 at 10:47pm
Thread Starter 
I have been getting into making fresh pasta lately, and in discussion with a friend he mentioned once making lemon and lime pasta. This sounded intriguing to me for dishes like fettucini with seafood.

So the question arises with using zest as an additive to egg pasta. Would you simply zest lemons and limes and incorporate that into the dough? I was thinking, it might be interesting to use a small amount of olive oil to heat the zest, releasing more of the citrus oils into the olive oil, while also breaking down the zest for a more uniform incorporation into the pasta dough. Any input appreciated.
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post #2 of 6
11/16/08 at 8:11am
I wouldn't pre-cook the zest. Just incorporate it in the dough.
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post #3 of 6
11/16/08 at 8:41am
Agree absolutely with Phil and add the following: Use a microplane to take the zest. The method of taking and size of the pieces of zest will take care of the aromatic oil. Your proposed method will dissipate them.

BDL
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post #4 of 6
11/16/08 at 12:35pm
If the recipe calls for sale, another technique is to grind the zest and the salt together in a mortar & pestle. This will also release a lot of the oil. I use this method with a lot of recipes, not just for grinding the zest, but also for breaking down other spices with the salt. You might even just do half the zest with the salt, to release flavor, but leave the other half of the zest "whole", for the appearance in the pasta.
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post #5 of 6
11/16/08 at 3:00pm
Be sure not to get any of the pith or white part of the zest into the pasta. Once cooked it becomes VERY bitter and will ruin the pasta. As stated above, use a microplaner and be sure to only take the top layer of zest.
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post #6 of 6
11/16/08 at 4:07pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the inputs! I guess I thought heat would infuse the zest flavor into the oil and create a conduit for distributing that into the dough, but then that is why I asked! I recently did spinach and sundried tomato, and noticed they don't impart a whole lot of flavor into the pasta, more color.

I have a micro-plane that I use for zesting like this. I am looking forward to trying this out, to get the correct ratio of zest to give the pasta the essence of citrus. :smiles:
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