Barilla’s A Meal for a Meal

 

As I mentioned in my Spaghettata post, more fun is on its way! August 15 marked the beginning of A Meal for a Meal, a four-day event that involves the above-pictured Barilla truck parking outside various ‘transportation hubs’ and distributing up to 5,000 Spaghettata kits a day to whomever walks by. 

 

The amazing thing is that, with the donation of each kit, $1 is also donated by Barilla to Food Bank of New York, a truly incredible organization dedicated to keeping NYers fed.  Not based in New York, or unable to get to one of these locations?  Not to worry – go to facebook.com/BarillaUS, like them and upload a photo to their wall – Barilla will then donate $1 for each photo uploaded!  How great is that? 

Today was the first day, at Union Square.  Here is a shot of all the people lined up at 3:30pm!!!  The event wasn’t to start until 4 but there was already a rather long line forming for the awesome Spaghettata kits.  You may want to get there early! 

Aaaaaaand here’s a shot of some of the bags lined up.  Don’t worry – this was just some of the kits, not all of them!  They’ll be giving away 5,000 a day – so hurry over to get yours! 

This is what’s in the kits: a box of greens (spring mix), a jar of Barilla marinara sauce, a box of spaghetti, literature about Casa Barilla, two tickets to Casa Barilla in September (!!!), and – it’s a little hard to see, but on top of the jar of marinara sauce are two packets, one olive oil and one balsamic vinegar, to dress your salad.  All you need for a rather delicious meal tonight!  *Contents may vary by bag (I noticed some people got different sauces or types of spaghetti). 

Okay, I cheated a little bit: I used the spaghetti rigati I received from the Spaghettata event instead – see how the pieces look like stars?  There are ridges in the spaghetti to hold sauce better.  I actually am a thick spaghetti girl, but decided to give this one a whirl since we’d had it at the Spaghettata and my fridge had something in it I wanted to use… basil. 

I whipped up my own version of pesto, and was really pleased with the results!  This is just a take off what we learned with some of my own additions based on what I had on hand and felt like using: basil, garlic chives, lemon juice, olive oil, salt/pepper, a bit of parmagiano reggiano.  Remember to extra-salt it; when you taste it, it should be borderline too salty because you are mixing it with pasta and possibly pasta water, which will make it much less salty!  I tossed it with some halved Sungold cherry tomatoes too, because I had them from my CSA and because I love them.  They’re so sweet, and they really added a nice pop to the pasta! 

For full details on where to find the Barilla truck over the next few days, please check here. 

The current schedule is 4-8pm daily:

August 16 at 7^th Ave between West 31^st Street and West 32^nd Street

August 17 at 59^th and Lexington Ave

August 18 at Broadway between West 58^th Street and Columbus Circle

but this may change, so be sure to follow Barilla on Twitter or like them on Facebook to get the full details!  Let me know if you pick up a kit, how you intend to use it and how you like it.  Thanks to Barilla for an excellent event benefiting a fantastic charity, and I hope you all enjoy! 

Please note that I attended this event courtesy of Barilla. I want to thank them for their hospitality, and while I am obligated to post about this event and future Summer of Italy events, I assure you that I will continue to uphold my responsibility to my readers to always be honest and forthright about what I eat and what I like or don’t like.  Also – this event and events listed above are open to the general public; I received no special treatment.