Looking for an easy dinner idea? Grab a rotisserie chicken, throw together a green salad, and bake up this simple and delicious pasta dish for dinner tonight. This one is family-friendly, and it doesn’t have any funky ingredients in it either. Here’s the how-to:
Melt butter in a medium skillet.
Add minced garlic and let it sizzle away in the bubbling butter.
Remove the pan from heat and stir in 2 cups of sour cream (I used light and all turned out just fine).
Add the zest of a lemon- about a Tablespoon.
Pour in juice from 1 1/2 lemons- about 1/3 cup.
Place cooked spaghetti in a large bowl- I like to use Barilla Plus Multigrain. My family doesn’t notice the difference, and it’s (hopefully) a bit healthier than plain white pasta.
Pour in your lemony sour cream sauce.
Stir it up.
Add a handful of finely chopped Italian parsley….
…and 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese.
Stir it up again.
Pour the lemony spaghetti mixture into a greased casserole dish.
At this point you’re going to cover the dish with foil and bake it at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
After baking- take it out of the oven, take off the foil and sprinkle another 1/2 cup or so of Parmesan cheese on top.
Squeeze the juice from half a lemon all over the top of the pasta.
Sprinkle on some freshly ground black pepper…
…and add a good dose of kosher salt too.
Place the dish back into the oven for 7 or 8 more minutes, just until the cheese gets melty and toasted on top.
Serve this baked lemon spaghetti it up on its own with a crisp little side salad, or grab a rotisserie chicken and add that to your dinner table too. My market sells a “lemon-garlic” roasted chicken, so that one is just perfect to go with the spaghetti. The pasta comes out of the oven with a light Parmesan crust baked on top. The lemony flavor in this spaghetti is wonderful on its own, but lemon-lovers may wish to squeeze an extra wedge or two on individual servings, as desired. The sauce is not overwhelmingly creamy- just a light coating to give the pasta a bit of flavor and zest. I envision adding mushrooms or BACON too. Enjoy 🙂 Other baked spaghetti recipes on the blogs that you may enjoy: Tomato Basil and Romano Ricotta Spaghetti Pies by Picky Palate Not Your Average Baked Spaghetti by The Cooking Photographer Baked Chicken Spaghetti by 5 Dollar Dinners Baked Spaghetti Squash w/ Garlic & Butter by Steamy Kitchen
