Lemon Baked Pasta- PW

I stumbled across this delicious dish the other day while perusing the Pioneer Woman's website. This dish is a delightful citrus twist on the traditional; very light, very lemony. Next time I will reduce the amount of noodles(recipe calls for 1lb) to half so there is more cream to noodles. Also, be careful not to overbake. In my effort to achieve the golden brown noddles on top, I did managed not only NOT to get golden brown noodles at all but baked too much of the moisture out. It is still edible and good, but not the desired texture that I know would be much better. Without further ado, the recipe!

Baked Lemon Pasta

1 pound thin spaghetti
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste if desired
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.
Serve with crusty French bread and a simple green salad.

If you are a sucker for delicious pictures, follow this: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/baked-lemon-pasta/