spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino
spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli
People will insist on telling you everywhere that this is the classic Italian ‘late night snack’ pasta, though in all honesty I’ve perhaps only once eaten this dish outside normal mealtimes. It's a little like saying scones and cream and jam are the classic British 5pm dish....
Anyway, A-O-P could just as easily become your ‘there’s nothing in the fridge’ pasta! My version is strong on flavours and heat, a hit of garlicky pasta with as much heat as you like. You can also use this ultra simple pasta dressing as a base for a few extra ingredients like one type of meat or fish or a vegetable to create your own signature ‘white’ pasta dish.
NB You my well have seen versions of AOP with loads of fresh parsley or other herbs added - when you add parsley to a garlic, chilli and oil sauce, it's actually called "alla carrettiere" in many parts of Italy and not, strictly speaking, Aglio-Olio-Peperoncino.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare the garlic and chilli
cook the garlic and chilli
boil and cook the pasta
combine the pasta and sauce
spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
2-3 cloves garlic
1 fresh cayenne pepper
EVO
pecorino
PASTA
400g dry spaghetti
MANTECATURA (?)
light to heavy
METHOD
For the traditional Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino, while you’re boiling the water for the pasta and cooking it, peel 2-3 cloves of garlic and cut and de-seed a cayenne pepper (or whatever kind of hotter chili pepper you dare to eat!).
Crush the garlic or cut super finely, or even use a garlic press, and then sweat it, together with the pepper in a frying pan with olive oil and a little water. Don’t let it colour at all.
When the pasta’s just approaching ‘al dente’, transfer it to the frying pan with the garlic, together with perhaps half a ladel of water from the pasta. The aim is to finish cooking the pasta in the frying pan with the water from the pasta that you’ve added, while it soaks up the garlic flavours. Think about adding another a splash of olive oil too.
When I was a child, or even just up to about 15 years ago, ‘Aglio Olio’ didn’t used to be made quite as creamy and starchy as it seems to be today. It was quite a juicy but quite obviously oily pasta (there's a clue in the name).... until suddenly it wasn't. Suddenly, it appeared that Generation Z had decided they missed baby food big time and they were on a mission to get it back; cooking their pasta from well before 'al dente' with lashings and lashings of cooking water and ending up with a million varieties of wallpaper paste.
But let's pause a moment. Some sauces and some pasta varieties, some combinations of ingredients, even, work very well with heavy mantecatura. BUT NOT ALL. I've seen foodie 'influencers' on Instagram cook EVERY singly dish with heavy mantecatura. HOW DULL. Every sauce with roughly the same texture and feel to it.
But who am I to poke fun? You're probably old enbough to decide how much 'mantecatura' you want to go with, and if you prefer a less stodgy, starchy coating, perhaps more juicy and oily than wallpaper paste-like, just let the pasta boil for less time before transferring it to the tossing pan and combining with the garlic and peperoncino.
Unusually for me, when I cooked the pasta in the picture above, I went with a pretty heavy mantecatura. It was, as expected, very like baby-food. And of course I added parsley, like a peasant, to make it 'alla carrettiere.'
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: we're working on it!
Fat (g): TBC
Sat Fat (g): TBC
Carb (g): TBC
Sug (g): TBC
Fibre(g): TBC
Prot (g): TBC
Salt (g): TBC
Nutritional information is provided as an indication only of approximate values for the recipe on this page. You should make your own calculations if you have specific dietry requirements or are required to follow a strict calorie-controlled diet.
