Pasta aglio e olio

This traditional dish is normally made with spaghetti but since I had a half pound of penne, I used that. Pasta aglio e olio is delicious anytime, but its quick preparation makes it perfect for an easy, no fuss meal. All you need is some garlic, parsley, olive oil, parmesan cheese and of course, pasta.

I used freshly grated parmesan cheese for this, but if you have another hard cheese, like pecorino, go ahead and use it. If you’d rather have a vegan preparation try this one which I used on baked potatoes or a commercial blend.

Since this cooks quickly, gather and prepare all your ingredients before you start cooking the pasta. We like to use an electric kettle to get a head start on boiling the water. Once the pasta is about halfway through the cooking time (roughly 6 minutes) start the sauce by cooking the garlic in some olive oil.

When the garlic begins to turn golden add some pasta water to the pan. I use a ladle to transfer it directly into the skillet. It will sputter and fuss and then settle into a nice simmer. Let the sauce simmer away while the pasta finishes cooking.

When the pasta is al dente, use a spider or slotted spoon to transfer it to the skillet and stir it around to coat with the sauce. I prefer to do this rather than draining the pasta because it preserves the pasta water which I’ll add to loosen the sauce if it tightens up.

Stir in the parsley before serving and have more parmesan available to add at the table.

Pasta aglio e olio

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Servings: 4 servings

Author: LydiaF

Ingredients

• 1 pound of pasta
• 1/4 cup or so extra virgin olive oil
• 6 - 8 cloves of garlic peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions.
• NOTE If you prefer to cook the pasta first, be sure to reserve 2 cups of the cooking water.
• When the pasta is about halfway through the cooking time, cover the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil and add a pinch of red pepper flakes.
• When heated, add the sliced garlic and cook for a couple minutes until it turns golden.
• Add about a cup of pasta water to the skillet and let cook for a couple minutes more.
• Stir in the drained pasta (or dip it out with a spider or slotted spoon) and stir to coat with the sauce.
• Toss the pasta with the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and let stand for a few minutes.
• Before serving stir in the parsley. Add more pasta water if needed to loosen the pasta.
• Serve with more parmesan cheese at the table.

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We like our pasta aglio e olio with lots of cracked black pepper and parmesan cheese. Sometimes we add butter to make it even richer, other times we’ll throw in about a cup of chopped leftovers or serve it with a fried egg. There’s no wrong way to eat this.

If you have leftovers, add a little more of the pasta water to the container when packing up. Otherwise you can loosen the pasta with a some oil or butter when reheating.

This recipe can be found in Ina Garten’s How Easy Is That? cookbook. She directs the reader to drain the pasta first, reserving some pasta water. I prefer to skip that step and ladle the pasta water and the pasta directly into the skillet for the reasons mentioned above and because my cook top is not conveniently located near my sink…and it saves washing a colander. Do whatever works best for you.

I will be sharing this post with the bloggers of I Heart Cooking Clubs. This is the last of our Ina themes. Next week we will be saying goodbye to her. In April we begin our adventures with Eric Ripert. I’m looking forward to it!