Fresh and Puckery Lemon Sauce

Name: Fresh and Puckery Lemon Sauce
Yield: Makes 1½ cups
Ingredients: 2 small Meyer or regular lemons; 1 small shallot, finely chopped; Kosher salt; 2⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 2⁄3 cup coarsely chopped parsley or mint; 2 tsp. runny honey; Freshly ground pepper

By Andy Baraghani

December 16, 2022

A bowl of chopped Meyer lemons parsley and olive oil on a marble countertop.

Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Drew Aichele

Here is a sauce for my fellow lemon lovers, who crave sinking their teeth into lemon wedges even though they know it could ruin their enamel. Using an entire lemon—skin, pith, and flesh—gives this sauce its tangy, bright, floral scent and lots of texture. The pith will lend some bitterness, but it’s offset by the honey. It’s a tad abrasive, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Feel free to change up the ingredients: Swap the ground pepper for a dried or fresh chile.

There are lots of ways to use this sauce: Stir into yogurt for a tangy dip. Toss with just about any roasted veg. Use as a marinade for fresh cheese, such as feta. Serve on top of braised meat or a rich stew. Or spoon over butter-slathered whole fish.

This recipe was excerpted from 'The Cook You Want to Be' by Andy Baraghani. Buy the full book on Amazon. This book was selected as one of the best cookbooks of 2022.

Recipe information

Yield
Makes 1½ cups

Ingredients

2 small Meyer or regular lemons

1 small shallot, finely chopped

Kosher salt

2⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2⁄3 cup coarsely chopped parsley or mint

2 tsp. runny honey

Freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Step 1
Trim and discard the knobby ends from the lemons (they’re tough). Quarter each lemon lengthwise to get four wedges. Using a chef’s knife, cut out the core and seeds. Thinly slice each wedge, including the pith and peel, then finely chop everything into bitsy pieces smaller than the size of a pea. You should end up with a messy pile of chopped lemon, with no large chunks remaining.
Step 2
Scoop up the lemon mess and juices from the cutting board and transfer to a medium bowl. Add the shallot and a pinch of salt and let sit for 10 minutes to soften the shallot. Stir in the olive oil, parsley, and honey. Season with more salt and a few turns of pepper to taste. The sauce should be boldly lemony and tangy. The sauce keeps, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 days.

Reprinted from The Cook You Want To Be. Copyright © 2022 Andy Baraghani. Photographs copyright © 2022 Graydon Herriott. Published by Lorena Jones Books, an imprint of Random House. Buy the full book from Amazon, Bookshop, or Random House.