Celebrate National Spaghetti Day With This Easy Italian Recipe—And Win a Free Year of Pasta!

Filled with veggies, protein, good fats and fiber, this is a truly nutritious pasta!

The following is a post sponsored by Barilla. For our sponsored post policy, click here.

We love pasta. I mean, who doesn’t love a big ol’ plate of spaghetti swimming in tasty Alfredo or marinara sauce? But the one thing we wish pasta had going for it? In a nutshell, even more nutrients than it already has. Which is why we are psyched to be celebrating National Spaghetti Day today with Barilla—psyched.

See, Barilla Whole Grain takes normal pasta and makes it not just tasty—it makes it healthy. Made of 51 percent whole wheat and with 28 grams of whole grains and 6 grams of fiber per serving, it’s deliciously filling and good for you. And Barilla Plus? Well, it’s like they got in our fit heads and made our ideal pasta. With 10 grams of high-quality protein per serving and 200 milligrams of ALA omega-3 fatty acids, a bowl of the stuff is truly a meal. Barilla Plus pastas are also a good source of thiamine, folic acid, iron, riboflavin and niacin. These pasta are truly an FBG’s best nutritional friend—and you can use them in your favorite pasta recipe!

Speaking of nutritious pasta recipes…we created the below one to help celebrate National Spaghetti Day! Check it out, and then see how you can get in the pasta action by creating your own recipe and possibly even winning Barilla pasta for a whole year, among other great items!

Easy Italian Spaghetti With Barilla Plus Recipe

Ingredients
1 14.5-ounce package Barilla Plus Spaghetti
1 tsp coconut oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 c grape tomatoes, halved
4 c fresh spinach
4 cloves garlic
4 ounces soppressata (or your favorite dry salami)
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c goat cheese

Directions
1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions, reserving 1/8 cup liquid before draining pasta.

2. Add coconut oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion until translucent. Then add grape tomatoes, spinach, garlic and soppressata until heated through and spinach is wilted.

3. Add cooked pasta and reserved liquid to the large skillet with veggies and soppressata. Stir in olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Place in bowls and top with goat cheese as a garnish. Enjoy!

How to Win a Free Year of Barilla Pasta

Ready to get your creative culinary juices flowing, too? Here are details on how you can do that and be entered to win a free year of Barilla pasta!

• Create a post on your own blog that uses Barilla Whole Grain spaghetti or PLUS spaghetti in a recipe for National Spaghetti Day (can enter up to three recipes).
• You may use recipes that are previously posted on your blog, as long as they include the provided phrase “Join Fit Bottomed Girls for the Surprisingly Nutritious Spaghetti Link-Up sponsored by Barilla pasta” and links to this post.
• If you don’t have a blog, you can leave your recipe in the comments section below.
• You also must add your post/recipe link in the below Mister Linky’s widget. To ensure the widget worked correctly, after the link is added, you must comment below, saying that you linked up.
• The reader who submits a qualifying recipe via the Mister Linky’s widget will be chosen at random to win pasta for a year with winners announced on January 7, 2013.  
  

Mister Linky’s Widget

Got it? Now get to creating and sharing those recipes for National Spaghetti Day. Yummy! —Jenn