Aglio e Olio (Spaghetti with Garlic and Olive Oil)

Ingredience

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil

8 garlic cloves, sliced thin

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 pound spaghetti

½ teaspoon table salt, plus salt for cooking pasta

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Pokyny

1. Heat oil and garlic in small saucepan over medium-low heat until pale golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Off heat, stir in pepper flakes. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, bring 3 quarts water to boil in large Dutch oven. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until strands are flexible but still very firm in center, about 5 minutes. Reserve 3 cups cooking water, then drain pasta.

3. Combine pasta, oil mixture, ½ teaspoon salt, and 2 cups reserved cooking water in now-empty pot and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often with tongs and folding pasta over itself, until water is mostly absorbed but still pools slightly in bottom of pot, about 5 minutes.

4. Let pasta sit off heat for 2 minutes. Stir in parsley and additional reserved cooking water as needed (approximately ¼ cup) to adjust consistency (noodles should be slightly wet, not oily). Serve.

Poznámky

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS We wanted to create a creamy pasta according to the traditional method—without the addition of heavy cream or cheese—letting the pasta’s starch do the work of thickening the sauce for us. To start, we lightly simmered equal parts garlic and olive oil in a small saucepan to soften the harshness of the garlic and to infuse the oil. We then reserved some of the starchy pasta cooking water to use as the foundation for our sauce. We simply set the garlic oil; pasta water; and parcooked, drained pasta back over heat in the pasta cooking pot and stirred to create a full-bodied sauce while the pasta finished cooking through. As a final touch, we added chopped parsley for color and vibrancy.

Be sure to use the 3 quarts of water specified in the recipe for cooking the pasta. The starch that the pasta releases into the water is essential to achieving the proper consistency in the sauce.