Citron Noodles with Miso Garlic Butter

These citron noodles were inspired by the Buddha’s hand citron I bought at the farmers’ market last week. I find it near impossible to pass them up, and love their ability to perfume my entire kitchen while I dream up their citrusy fate. The fava beans came from the next stall, and everything else you see here was already on hand at home - furikake, chili crisp, butter, and miso. It all comes together into the ultimate spring pasta bowl. And yes, you can enjoy a version of this using lemon or orange zest. Absolutely delicious!

Ingredients

Here's a look at the ingredients needed for this recipe. I didn't end up using the kale chips. In the recipe, note the ground cardamom called for in the miso garlic butter. I really love the way it plays off the floral notes of the citron. So if you have it, definitely use it.

Fava note: If you've never cooked with fresh fava beans before, here's what to do. To get them to look like the favas in this photo, you'll be shelling them twice. Remove the favas first from their big, puffy pods. Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt the water, boil the favas for a minute or so. Drain. Now, remove the second skins, and you should have fava beans that are ready to eat and look like the ones above.

How to Clean and Zest a Citron

Working with standard citron, the kind that looks like a lumpy, oversized lemon is pretty straight-forward. Give the skin a gentle cleaning with warm water. Working with a fingered citron (or Buddha’s hand citron) can be a bit trickier. I like to keep a toothbrush in my kitchen to clean tight areas, like the creases you see in the citron I used for this recipe, the corner of a towel can work as well. Here’s the process:

1. Give the citron a gentle scrub to remove any dirt.
2. Cut the citron into long quarters, and begin to use the tooth brush to get into any creases. Break off citron fingers as needed to work into the deeper cracks.
3. Use a y-shaped vegetable peeler to gently remove the zest, avoiding the white pith. Use a sharp knife to slice the peel into very fine flecks.

Citron Noodles: Variations

• Other citrus: It can be tricky to find citron - both the fingered varietal and the one that looks somewhat like an lumpy, oversized lemon. You can use another citrus zest here otherwise a combination of more than one - lemon, orange, lime, makrut lime - all wonderful to experiment with.
• Kale chips: I use furikake here, but if I was out, I’d use kale chips to top the noodles.
• Vegan version: to make a vegan version of these citron noodles, dilute the miso with a tablespoon of the pasta water to thin it out. Use olive oil in place of the butter, and whisk the thinned out miso into the olive oil. This way you avoid clumping.
• With artichokes: Swap out the fava beans, swap in pan-fried artichokes. Here’s a primer on how to cook artichokes. They’re so good, and frozen artichokes work wonderfully if you aren’t up for the prep involved with fresh artichokes.

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