Celebrate World Pasta Day with a Barilla Lemon Spaghetti Recipe

Between the blog posts, social networking, three crazy dogs, a high schooler with an unbelievable amount of homework and - let's face it, a million other things - serving a home-cooked meal is something that I struggle with, even now that I work from home!

One of our favorite dinners has always been pasta, and I find that even now that I work from home, pasta is still my go-to dinnertime staple!

Today is World Pasta Day and I thought I'd share a Barilla pasta dinner recipe from The Modern Family Pasta Cookbook!

I received a little sneak peak of The Modern Family Pasta Cookbook, and it was full of mouth-watering recipes; so much so that I had a hard time choosing what to make first!

We eventually settled on the Barilla Lemon Spaghetti pasta recipe, which seemed to be a light and flavorful dish, plus I had a ton of leaves on my basil plant that I wanted to use!

Angeline and I gathered our ingredients for making Barilla lemon spaghetti but then found we were missing one key ingredient...LEMONS!

We decided to go ahead and make it anyway, sans the lemons. Part of the ease of cooking pasta for dinner on a busy week night is that you really can't go wrong with altering recipes! Lemon or no lemon, this recipe sounded delicious!

So, why did we choose this recipe from the Modern Family Pasta Cookbook? Because it was so quick and easy - and tasted fantastic - that we were still able to throw together a great meal and sit down for a home-cooked dinner together, despite our crazy schedules!

Growing up, we always had dinner together as a family, and that is really important to me now that I have my own family. And nine times out of ten, serving a home-cooked pasta dish is going to taste better and be healthier for my family than any take out fast food!

Barilla Lemon Spaghetti

INGREDIENTS

1 pound Barilla Spaghetti
2 fresh lemons
⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
⅔ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
cheese, freshly grated, or add your
favorite Italian grated cheese
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
⅓ cup fresh basil, chopped, or substitute
with ½ tablespoon dry basil

Directions

Grate lemon peels and place lemon zest in a small bowl. Juice the lemons into a separate large bowl, then whisk the lemon juice, oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, ¾ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper in the large bowl and blend. Set the lemon sauce aside.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain and reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the spaghetti to the lemon sauce, and toss with the basil and lemon zest. Toss the pasta with enough reserved cooking liquid, ¼ cup at a time, to moisten.

Barilla conducted a survey and found the following:

• 88% of parents rely on multi-tasking each day and more than half (58%) say their life is more hectic now, than a year ago.
• Twowo-in-five people who normally prepare the meals agree it is difficult to find time to prepare dinner.
• Most people worry that the alternative to a home-cooked meal will offer poor nutritional content (74%) and they will miss out on family time at the table (65%).

Get social with Barilla on Facebook and check out the Barilla Facebook Share a Hug page to help Barilla donate to Feeding America!

You can also receive a download of the Modern Family Pasta Cookbook and a coupon (while supplies last).

What kinds of things get in the way of your meal planning and preparation?

According to a survey conducted by Barilla, these are some common issues that prevent man from enjoying a home-cooked meal on a regular basis:

• Work
• Household chores
• Errands
• Kids’ after school activities
• Kids’ homework

I can personally relate to every single one of those things! It's so easy to prepare an easy pasta dish while helping the kids with homework, doing a load of laundry - or like I normally do - typing out a blog post!

So...what's for dinner tonight? Could it be...pasta? It is World Pasta Day, after all!

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I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Barilla. I received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating. All opinions are my own.