Spaghetti aglio e olio
On March 18, 2014 by Meghalee Das
Spaghetti aglio e olio is a quick and easy pasta dish, which means “spaghetti with garlic and oil” in Italian. It is one of my favourite pasta recipes because it is light, has simple flavors and also goes well with other dishes like meatballs and gravy. It hardly takes a few minutes to prep and cook and requires very few ingredients.
The garlic needs to be cut into very thin slices or be minced, and then toasted in olive oil on low heat. Letting the flavour of the garlic get slowly infused into the olive oil is the most crucial step in spaghetti aglio e olio. Some prefer adding chilli flakes to the oil, but salt and pepper works fine for me. Herbs like parsley and basil are optional, although I think the finely chopped parsley gives the dish more flavor. You can garnish it with grated parmesan cheese, and if you want it to be vegan, skip this step or sprinkle a bit of nutritional yeast.
Ingredients:
Spaghetti or Angel Hair Pasta: ½ pound
Extra virgin olive oil: ¼ cup
Large garlic cloves: 5
Chopped parsley: ¼ cup
Grated parmesan cheese: ½ cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1) Boil water in a large pot and add the pasta with 1 tbsp salt.
2) While the pasta is cooking, cut the garlic cloves into very thin slices.
3) Add olive oil in a pan and let the garlic cook in it on low to medium heat for around 5 minutes or till gets light brown. Also sprinkle salt and pepper and keep stirring frequently so that the garlic does not burn.
4) While the garlic toasts, your pasta will be ready. Drain it and keep it aside but retain ½ cup of the pasta water.
5) Add this water into the pan so that the garlic stops cooking. Increase the heat and allow the water to almost evaporate till you are left with the garlic infused olive oil, with a bit of starch from the pasta water.
6) Pour this oil, garlic and pasta water combo on the spaghetti and add the parsley and grated parmesan cheese.
Toss well till the oil gets well-incorporated.
7) Garnish with a few more parsley leaves, crushed black pepper and grated parmesan and serve the spaghetti aglio e olio warm.
- Spaghetti or Angel Hair Pasta: ½ pound
- Extra virgin olive oil: ¼ cup
- Large garlic cloves: 5
- Chopped parsley: ¼ cup
- Grated parmesan cheese: ½ cup
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Boil water in a large pot and add the pasta with 1 tbsp salt.
- While the pasta is cooking, cut the garlic into very thin slices.
- Add olive oil in a pan and let the garlic cook in it on low to medium heat for around 5 minutes or till gets light brown. Also add salt and crushed pepper and keep stirring frequently so that the garlic does not burn.
- Meanwhile, drain the pasta and keep it aside but retain ½ cup of the pasta water. Pour the water into the pan so that the garlic stops cooking and does not get too brown. Increase the heat and allow the water to almost evaporate.
- Pour this oil, garlic and pasta water combo on the spaghetti, add the parsley and parmesan cheese and toss well till the oil gets well-incorporated.
- Garnish with a few more parsley leaves and grated parmesan and serve warm.
