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This might come as a shock, but, sometimes after a day of work writing about food, looking at recipes, and staring at food photos, the last thing I want to do is come home and actually cook anything. Sure, my MyRecipes collection is bursting with new dishes to try, but when motivation is low, even following a simple recipe can feel like a chore.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
On those nights, I\u2019m turning to something quick: a frozen pizza, boxed mac and cheese, or a super-simple pasta dish. And by super simple, I mean a pasta dish that\u2019s made with store-bought sauce and maybe <\/em>dressed up with veggies or added protein.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n On a trip to Italy this past summer, I was introduced to a two-ingredient pasta dish that is so flavorful and delicious that you don\u2019t even need to doctor it up. All it requires is your favorite pasta and a jar of Barilla\u2019s creamy Sweet and Spicy Pepper Pesto.\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bailey Fink<\/p>\n <\/span> A dish with two ingredients\u2014and that\u2019s ready in the time it takes to cook pasta\u2014seriously has no business being as good as this one is. But, Barilla\u2019s slightly spicy, rich, cheesy, and ultra-creamy red pesto sauce is a hero in my kitchen.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t take adding any extra oil or ingredients to make it taste better, like some store-bought pestos might require. Instead, you can pour the jar right onto the pasta (always off the heat, as Barilla\u2019s Chef Marcello Zaccaria taught me) and serve it. I usually top every pasta dish with a small mountain of Parmesan cheese and some fresh basil, but that\u2019s completely optional.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n As for the pasta, really any short shape will work. I like to use some kind of spiraled, like fusilli, or rounded, like orecchiette, pasta to allow the pesto to cling to every crevice. Recently, I\u2019ve been using Barilla\u2019s Al Brozno pasta because the noodles have more texture that allows the sauce to really stick to them.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n If I\u2019m feeling motivated\u2014or if I have veggies in the fridge that are nearing the end of their lives\u2014I\u2019ll throw in some extra ingredients. I\u2019ve added everything from spinach, mushrooms, Italian sausage, and ricotta, and it\u2019s always been a delicious dish. The pesto is still the star, yet adding just a few additional ingredients makes the meal a bit heartier.\n<\/p>\n Whether I serve it as the simple two-ingredient meal ready in minutes, or spend just a few extra moments chopping and browning a meat, the Barilla Sweet and Spicy Pepper Pesto pasta is always the easiest dish I make on any given weeknight.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This might come as a shock, but, sometimes after a day of work writing about food, looking at recipes, and staring at food photos, the last thing I want to do is come home and actually cook anything. Sure, my MyRecipes collection is bursting with new dishes to try, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} How To Make My Favorite 2-Ingredient Pasta Dish <\/span> <\/h2>\n
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