Cooking with lemon leaves

We moved house a few months ago – our first time living in a house, rather than a shoebox sized apartment, as was always the case in Florence. It’s a lovely old double brick house with stained glass on all the doors, wrought iron fireplaces and hardwood floors. The nice thing with a house, too, is having a back yard where we’ve just planted our first winter vegetable patch with radicchio, leeks and kale and things for the spring like fava beans, strawberries, radish, snow peas. But the best thing about the back yard, if you ask me, is sitting at the very back, in front of the corrugated iron shed – a tall and wide lemon tree, with branches that are starting to droop under the weight of all its fruit.

Having our own lemon tree means having a bountiful supply of fresh, unsprayed, organic lemons – something that will translate nicely into marmalade, curd and be useful for hot teas this winter. But before having my own lemon tree I had never thought of using also its leaves. Much like kaffir lime leaves, while you may not want to eat them, lemon leaves can be used to impart a wonderful lemon essence to your cooking, particularly when wrapped around your chosen food and grilled. This is a technique especially enjoyed by Sicilians, whose island region is well-known for its citrus (more on that later this week). There you’ll find a popular dish of polpette, meatballs, wrapped in lemon leaves, secured with a toothpick and oven baked, a dish every Sicilian nonna worth her salt would know how to make.

On the mainland, along the Amalfi coast, where beautiful, sweet Amalfi lemons grow, they grill thick slices of scamorza affumicata (smoked mozzarella) in lemon leaves. Imagine those beauties added to your next summer barbeque – crisp, chargrilled lemony leaves hiding soft and oozing cheese.

This recipe is a variation on ones that traditionally use other fresh seafood such as mussels or fresh anchovy fillets. It’s simple, fresh food, quick to make and perfect as part of an antipasto. A breadcrumb coating is made with fresh breadcrumbs (always better to make your own with a recipe like this – just blitz some stale crusty bread in a food processor), fresh herbs such as mint or parsley, lemon zest, a little garlic and a lick of olive oil. Grill or bake. If using mussels, cook them first in a big pot just to open them and if you’re trying this with anchovy or other fish fillets, try adding a bit of finely grated Parmesan in the breadcrumb coating instead of the garlic.

Oysters wrapped in lemon leaves

It’s very important that you know the provenance of your lemon leaves as they must be absolutely free of any sprays or pesticides, which can be poisonous – they are best if straight out of your garden for this reason. The same goes for anything requiring lemon zest – organic is the way to go.

To serve 4 as part of an antipasto

  • 12 fresh oysters
  • Drizzle of olive oil
  • Handful of homemade breadcrumbs
  • Handful of chopped mint or parsley
  • Some freshly grated organic lemon zest
  • A clove of garlic, chopped finely
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 12 large organic lemon leaves, wiped clean
  • Some fresh lemon wedges or cheeks for serving

Remove the fresh oysters from their shells and drizzle them with some olive oil. Combine the breadcrumbs, herbs, zest, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and roll each of the oysters in this mixture then place each on a lemon leaf, fold over the leaf and secure with a toothpick. Bake or grill until the oysters are sizzling and just cooked, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately with some lemon wedges or cheeks. To eat, simply remove the toothpicks, open up the fragrant lemon leaves, squeeze over some lemon juice and use the toothpick to pop that oyster into your mouth – perfect with some crusty ciabatta bread and a little glass of something dry and sparkly.

Comments

  1. Rosa says:

    That is interesting! I guess they have the same use as lime leaves in Asian cuisine.

    A wonderful recipe.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  2. Sarah B-C says:

    What a creative use of a rarely used ingredient (and one I never would have imagined myself). I hope someday to live in a place where I can have my own citrus trees!

    • Emiko says:

      Next best thing is having a generous friend with a lemon tree!

    • William says:

      Hi Sarah, You can keep a little lemon tree in a pot inside. I have one and I love it. The fruit grows year round and there are always leaves. I bought mine at our local home improvement store. It’s a Monrovia, and when it blooms it smells so nice, I keep it outside in summer and inside in winter by a big window with full sun.

  3. This looks so fragrant! I had no idea you could use lemon leaves but it does make sense as one uses lime leaves as well. How wonderful your house sounds, I know it is a special feeling having your own home, that actually has a stairs to go upstairs and a garden to go out to. A little place for yourself, a place where you can grow. A lemon tree in your garden, you lucky lady… I found one single unwaxed lemon with a leaf in a store in Ghent some time ago, I was so infatuated by the thing I kept taking pictures of it… Its inspired my still life photos and I preserved the whole thing just to keep it a bit longer…
    Happiness is in the little things, like in a lemon.
    x

    • Emiko says:

      It makes such a difference living in a proper little house! 🙂 Ha, I love your little lemon story Regula, that’s so cute. But it’s true – such a beautiful thing, a piece of fruit, I think that’s why 16th & 17th century painters knew what they were doing with all those still life paintings! x

  4. Ah beautiful Emiko. I was wondering how you were going to cook with the leaves when you first mentioned about it on Twitter .. this is ingenious! bravo! I can only imagine the lovely flavour in the oysters x

    • Emiko says:

      Thanks Sneh! It’s a great little trick, isn’t it, even though I can’t take credit for it! The flavour is amazing, quite similar to the way kaffir lime leaves infuse flavour into food.

  5. PolaM says:

    I always wanted a lemon tree! NOw I want it even more!

  6. annette says:

    great little story…I have been wondering if it was possible to use lemon leaves too…I have several lemontrees in pots on my terrace..actually grown from seeds..I know these will never bear fruit so using their leaeves is the next best thing…we do a lot of asian cooking at Casa Annette and use dried kafir lime leaves for that…I´m now looking forward to using the lemon ones. Thank you Emiko for the info…enjoy you house xx

  7. Linda says:

    where do you buy large lemon leaves in the US? Thank you

    • Emiko says:

      I’m not sure to be honest but my first guess would be a farmers’ market (even if you can find lemons with the leaves still attached) – perhaps you can even ask your local fruit & vegetable grocer if they can get them in for you or ask around if any friends may have lemon trees in their yard (you never know!)!

  8. alessandra says:

    Salve,
    bellissimo blog, foto e ricette stupende.
    Volevo solo portare alla sua attenzione l’uso di una sua foto (senza credits) su questo sito http://www.solofornelli.it/27012014/usare-le-foglie-di-limone-cucina/7197.

    Forse ne e’ a conoscenza, ma forse no 🙂

    cordiali saluti
    Alessandra

  9. Bill Macpherson says:

    We live in a 300 year old Spanish Masia in Besalu with 10 acres, however growing lemon trees has proved to be a problem because of the cool temperatures in the winter. Got round this by planting in large terracotta tubs. Lots of fruit and we are able to move them into a covered area in the winter. We have three lemon trees – free to anyone who wants to buy our Masia. It is up for sale.

  10. fred di Stefano says:

    I have a 15 years old lemon tree from the amalfi coast when I was there last. P.s.I brought seeds back home. I split and take the skin off the sausage then grill them till there just about done. Then I aluminum foil a cookie sheet pan.Then I pick two leaves for each piece of sausage. I bend them a couple times and lay one leaf for each piece of sausage on the foil. Then I put the sausage on top and repeat with the other leaves cover with tin foil and put the pan back on the grill for about 15 minutes. Boun Appetite.

  11. Viginia Luther says:

    Thanks

  12. Hazel Smith says:

    Thanks for creative Cooking recipe with Lemon Leaves.

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  14. (A v k rao says:

    We used to make chutney with lemon leaves. It’s easy to make take about twenty minutes to prepare and make. Fry fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, split chickpea,asafoetida, dry red chillies in olive oil or ghee keep aside
    Saute tender lemon leaves in oil for two or three minutes cook and grind all ingredients together and add salt to taste. It’s delicious, healthy and can preserve for about a fortnight in tightly closed bottle..

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