Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
By Groceree
The Neapolitan late-night plate: garlic cut into slivers and brought slowly to the colour of pale straw in olive oil, with chilli, parsley and spaghetti. Nothing else goes in but a ladle of starchy water swirled into the oil, so how far the garlic is taken decides how the whole plate tastes.
Last updated
- Servings
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 25 min
Ingredients
spaghetti400 g
extra virgin olive oil100 ml
garlic6 cloves
chilli flakes1 tsp
flat-leaf parsley4 tbsp
salt
Instructions
- 01
Put a large pan of water on to boil and it until it tastes seasoned. Almost everything the pasta itself tastes of arrives through that water.
- 02
Cut the with a knife into slivers thin enough to see light through. A press or a crushed clove releases too much juice and scorches long before it browns.
- 03
Put the and the together into a cold frying pan and set it over low heat. As the warms the slivers should murmur rather than sizzle. Keep them there, stirring, for 8 to 10 minutes.
- 04
Take the pan off the heat the moment the is the colour of pale straw. It keeps darkening in the hot afterwards, and one shade past that it is bitter. Stir the in now, while the cools.
- 05
Boil the for 1 minute less than the packet says, and finely chop the while it cooks. Scoop out a cupful of the cooking water just before you drain it.
- 06
Set the pan back over low heat, pour in a ladleful of the cooking water and shake and swirl it hard. The and the water will cloud and thicken together instead of sitting in two layers.
- 07
Add the and toss for 1 minute, letting in more water a splash at a time until the strands are slippery and nothing pools at the bottom of the pan. Off the heat, fold through the .
- 08
Eat it immediately, bare. Naples sends this plate out with nothing grated over the top.
Notes
- Scorched garlic cannot be rescued, and the bitterness spreads through the whole panful of oil. If it goes past gold, throw the oil out, wipe the pan and start again; it costs 10 minutes and is always worth it.
- This is a plate of olive oil, so use one you would happily taste on bread. A peppery unfiltered oil comes through clearly, and a bland one leaves nothing behind but garlic.
- Two standard additions: three anchovy fillets melted into the oil alongside the garlic, or a handful of coarse breadcrumbs fried crisp in oil and scattered over at the end, which is how southern kitchens got crunch without cheese.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 600 kcal
- Protein
- 12 g
- Carbs
- 76 g
- Fat
- 26 g
Estimated from the ingredients.
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