Okay, I’ll be honest – This dish is up there with my all-time favourite dishes! It’s quick, cheap, easy to make, uses very few ingredients, is excellent for those after-work quick meals, and is so packed full of flavour and simply D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! Yet I can never justify paying for it at a restaurant… Now that I can produce a beautiful home-cooked pasta dish in under 15 minutes and adjust the ingredients to our liking, I tend to find the restaurant dishes significantly lacking in flavour (and in colour!)
Follow the steps below to whip up this beautiful dish in no time and I promise it’ll make its way up into the list of your favourite dishes too… unless of course if you’re on a low-carb diet or you don’t like garlic!
The prep for this dish is quite easy and quick. You’ll need some pasta (I like to make it with Spaghetti, it works just as well with tagliatelle or any other pasta shape of your choice). You’ll also need to thinly slice some garlic (and chillies, if you like to spice it up!)
If you’re like me and always end up having either too much pasta or too little pasta and have to boil some more, then you could use a pasta serving size measuring tool. Mine is a wooden tool and I find it quite handy when making this dish for a few people.
Start off by boiling some water in a large pan, salt it generously and add a few drops of olive oil into the boiling water. This prevents the pasta from sticking together while cooking. You really need the pasta to boil a bit until it slightly softens up but is still “al dente”. We will continue the cooking process in the frying pan, to allow it to soak up the flavours of the garlic-infused olive oil.
While the pasta is boiling, add the olive oil to the pan on medium-high heat for a minute, then lower the heat to medium and add the sliced garlic. If you’re like me and love some chilli in your food, you can thinly slice your chillies and throw them in with the garlic to flavour the oil.
Add some of the pasta water into the oil when the garlic is nice and golden, this is very important because it stops the garlic from cooking further in the oil. I usually add 3 ladles full of water into the oil, and then scoop the pasta and toss it in the garlic oil, when the pasta has cooked for a few minutes and is still al dente.
Cook the pasta on medium-low heat, until it’s cooked to your liking. Keep stirring it gently, then add salt and fresh pepper to taste. You can also add some freshly grated parmesan and incorporate it with the pasta at this stage, but this step is optional.
When the pasta is cooked to your liking, add some fresh parsley and toss through to incorporate them. This not only gives a beautiful colour to the dish but also adds a subtle fresh flavour too to cut through the richness of the dish.
To plate up, put the pasta in a bowl, and add some fresh cracked pepper and some grated parmesan. Et voilà, bon appétit!
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Garlic and Olive Oil pasta)
Ingredients
- 120 g Spaghetti
- 6 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
- Pinch of Salt
- Black Pepper
- 5 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Fresh chilli or dried chilli flakes (or both!) – Optional
- 1 bunch Parsley, thinly cut
- 1/2 cup Parmesan (shaved or finely grated)
Instructions
- Bring salted water to the boil in a saucepan, add a tablespoon of olive oil, then cook the pasta.
- Check the packet instructions for the type of pasta you're using, as it needs to come out of the boiling water 'al dente' and continue cooking in the frypan for extra flavour.
- While the pasta is boiling, place a frypan on medium heat, add the olive oil and sauté the garlic slices (and chillies, if using) in the olive oil. The aim is to flavour the oil, while gently toasting the garlic slices without burning them.
- Add a ladle of the pasta water into the oil (careful with this step as the oil would be hot and would splash a bit when you add the water). This step is important to stop the garlic from frying any further.
- Remove the pasta from the boiling water, while still firm ('al dente'), and toss into the frypan with the olive oil and the garlic, adding more water if needed to coat the pasta.
- Lower the heat a bit and gently cook the pasta in the frypan, tossing it frequently to prevent burning.
- When the pasta is cooked to your liking, add the parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste and mix well to allow the parmesan to melt.
- Add the thinly cut parsley to the pan and mix it in with the pasta.
- Remove from the heat, divide into 2 plates.
- Sprinkle with more parmesan, freshly ground pepper, and extra chilli flakes (if using).
- Bon Appétit!