Full of flavour, simple, fast, home-style food with classic ingredients — that’s pretty much what Italian cooking is all about, and spaghetti aglio e olio is no different.
This is the recipe you make when you have no other food at home (and zero motivation to cook anything that requires more than 1 pot or 10 minutes). It’s the ultimate pantry pasta for a reason: the 3 main ingredients are pasta, garlic “aglio”, and oil “olio.” Add salt and pepper to season, and you’ve got yourself a dish. Everything else is extra — it’s fine even if you don’t have it.
It’s a quick recipe to make for a simple weeknight dinner, but will also hold it’s own on a Sunday night, accompanied with a glass of wine. If you can’t imagine a meal without a vegetable or two, don’t fret, because this simple recipe is a great base to add on to. Add chopped olives or mushrooms, include leafy greens like spinach or kale.
A few tips for making the best spaghetti aglio e olio:
- Use the best quality ingredients. No settling for anything but authentic extra virgin olive oil
- Salt the pasta water generously. As good chefs always say, it must be as salty as the sea. And then, reserve the pasta cooking liquid — this is applicable for almost all pasta recipes, as the starchy salty water is a wonderful way to emulsify the sauce.
- Gently infuse the olive oil with garlic by heating it over low heat for a longer period. We don’t want to burn the oil or the garlic, but cook until the garlic softens and mellows down.
- Add the black pepper directly to the oil instead of at the end as a seasoning. As the oil heats, it allows the spice to bloom.
- Finish with chopped herbs for freshness, and some crushed red chilli flakes for heat
And that’s all need to know. It isn’t complicated or time consuming, but a classic recipe that you’ll always want to have on rotation.
- 4 servings of spaghetti, linguine, or any long pasta
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 8-10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes (or as per taste)
- Salt, to taste
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- A handful of basil leaves, roughly torn
- To serve: grated Parmesan, more freshly ground black pepper
- Optional: sliced olives and capers
- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook as per package instructions or until al-dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.
- Heat the olive oil on low-medium heat. Add sliced garlic and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, and cook for a couple of minutes or until the garlic is softened and brown (we wan’t soft, not crispy and burnt garlic). Adding the black pepper at this stage allows the spice to bloom properly. If using olives and capers (or any veggies), add them at this stage.
- Add a few tablespoons of the reserved pasta cooking liquid to the pan carefully (it will splash), and let it simmer until it reduces, about 5 minutes. This forms your “sauce.”
- Add the red chilli flakes and spaghetti, and toss well. Season with salt (Note: pasta will already be seasoned as it’s cooked in salty water, so use salt with discretion).
- Remove the pasta from the the heat and toss in the chopped herbs. Add grated parmesan and mix well.
- Serve pasta topped with more Parmesan, black pepper, and red chilli flakes.
