If you’ve read our About page, you know that when we first started cooking we made A LOT of pasta recipes by Giada De Lauarentiis. We don’t eat pasta too terribly often anymore, but this is a Giada pasta that we still make 10 years later. This lemon spaghetti is SO many wonderful things, from tart (lemons) to sweet (basil) to fruity (good olive oil). It is incredibly light, fresh and satisfying. Enjoy it on it’s own or toss it with grilled shrimp or leftover seafood for a truly outstanding combination. Lemon and basil are a match made it flavor heaven, and the parmesan only adds to the beauty of what goes on here. Another item to be added to this dish’s list of virtues is that it is just as delicious served at room temperature, so there’s no need to stress about getting it into your family’s or guests’ mouths hot. It is also very inexpensive (minus any seafood additions), so consider this instead of your usual spaghetti the next time you need something quick and easy… and fabulously different from the norm.

Tip (unsponsored): Although we love substituting whole grain pasta for the norm, we suggest using regular spaghetti for this recipe. The result just isn’t the same otherwise. Also, if you want to add salmon as seen here (we highly advise it – it’s such an awesome addition), we suggest undercooking your salmon just a touch. Overcooked seafood is dry, tough and never delicious, and this way it is sure to be great as leftovers, especially if you re-heat it at all. Speaking of which, please do not reheat fish above room temperature. It overcooks it and it is much more enjoyable at room temp. In fact, you can toss your leftover seafood into this pasta straight from the fridge. The hot noodles will bring it back up to near room temp for you. Here is how to grill salmon. It will add another 15 minutes or so to the process, but it’s so very worth it.

We love the basil plants that are available at Trader Joe’s. You can buy a plant for very little cost and enjoy it’s beauty and fragrance until it’s time to prepare your dish. This way, you won’t have to hope that the container of basil you bought a couple days ago will still be fresh when it’s go-time. We also love the lemons offered at Trader Joe’s. The little ones you buy in the bag are usually sweet and perfect (unfortunately, we can’t make the same claim for Costco’s lemons, which we have found to be huge but mostly flavorless).

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Have your kids help you tear basil leaves from it’s plant. Be sure to have them inhale the amazing aroma, creating a memory with you. They will also love to help you juice the lemons. Preparing this dish is a total feast for your sense of smell! As you prepare and enjoy this meal with your family, teach them about some of the health benefits of some of the ingredients:

• Basil has lots of vitamin K, which helps you stop bleeding.
• Lemon juice can help protect you from getting kidney stones.
• Olive oil’s fatty acids can help your body balance blood sugar.

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Since this lemony, basil-y pasta invokes visions of Capri, Italy for us, let’s learn a few things about this picturesque isle:

• Caesar found Capri so captivating that he returned over and over again for vacation.
• Capri offers some of the most breathtaking caves and colors of water in the world.
• Many authors have gone to Capri to enjoy the serenity and landscape, and have used it for the setting of their writings.
• We will go to Capri someday. Oh, wait, that may not constitute as a fact….

From Lemon Spaghetti