Pasta al limone's particular delights
Good Food
KCRW
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Good Food:
- Good Food contributor Khushbu Shah chases down the best plates of pasta al limone.
- Joshua McFadden uses pasta as a canvas for seasonal ingredients and shares his pomodoro recipe.
- Karima Moyer-Nocchi reveals the cultural, political, and religious history behind macaroni and cheese.
- Leah Koenig prepares for Passover by making coconut macaroons.
- Poncho Martinez and Odilia Romero expand from tlayudas to more regional Oaxacan fare at Lugya'h, which is named in the Michelin Guide.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman and this is good food. |
| 0:07.4 | Opening an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles in the early 80s, I was at the forefront of the |
| 0:14.0 | trend away from checkered tablecloths towards a more streamlined modern Italian aesthetic. |
| 0:20.8 | On the plate, that often meant, quote, lighter fare, |
| 0:26.0 | and by lighter, I mean loads of buttercream and lemon. |
| 0:31.4 | Decades on, pasta limone is thriving in L.A. |
| 0:35.7 | Good food contributor, Cushbu Shaw, hunted down the best plates of pasta |
| 0:39.9 | that, wow, they take me back. Hi. Hi, how are you? I'm good. So I clearly have thoughts about |
| 0:48.3 | pasta limone, but I am very excited to hear yours. I love a pasta limone, especially a very emphasis on limone. |
| 0:57.1 | Yeah, I'll really lemony one. |
| 0:58.8 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, bright, like super bright. |
| 1:01.8 | So in your opinion, what makes a luscious limone and where are its origins? |
| 1:09.1 | Yes, so pasta alimone originates from southern Italy, |
| 1:13.3 | especially in the kind of like coastal areas, like the Amalfi Coast, |
| 1:16.5 | the island of Sicily. |
| 1:17.6 | There's a lot of lemons that are abundant and, you know, grow in like just giant droves in that area. |
| 1:25.9 | And they're very celebrated. |
| 1:27.0 | So it makes a lot of sense you know that |
| 1:29.0 | they're used in in pasta for me a great limone usually starts with a house-made pasta of you know a pasta |
| 1:37.4 | made by hand so it's a little silcier you know something very tender and i like a more traditional |
| 1:43.9 | limone that is very heavy on the lemon |
| 1:46.4 | juice, but is made from a sauce that is creamy, but is creamy because like the pasta water |
... |
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