Serving Up {Pasta}: Creamy Lemon Pasta

The first thing that you might notice when you read the recipe for this dish is that it calls for thin spaghetti and yet, the photos are definitely not of spaghetti.  While the recipe calls for thin spaghetti (and I have always made it with thin spaghetti), the night I made this recipe I had children requesting a different shaped pasta.  While my kids may think that the shape of the pasta matters, I realize that it generally does not and I can report that this recipe turns out just fine using a shape other than thin spaghetti.  Oh, and I also added some cooked chicken.  So basically I took a photo that will look very different from what you will end up with were you to follow the recipe as written :)

I LOVE the light lemon flavor and would definitely encourage the use of real lemons versus bottled lemon juice.  There was something about squeezing a fresh lemon over the dish as it came out of the oven that just set my spirits high.  One bite and my spirits went soaring!

BAKED LEMON PASTA    
(recipe from The Sister's Cafe)
printable version

1 pound Thin Spaghetti
4 Tablespoons Salted Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 whole Lemon, Juiced And Zested
2 cups Sour Cream
½ teaspoons Kosher Salt, Or More To Taste
Plenty Of Grated Parmesan Cheese
Flat-leaf Parsley, Chopped
Extra Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente. In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT. When butter is melted, add minced garlic. Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat. Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.) When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top. Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley. Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end or feel free to add as much as you like.