When it comes to pasta, I love oil-based sauces. White sauce comes next, tomato and meat sauces come last. One of my favorite pasta dishes is Spaghetti Aglio Olio, which literally translates to Spaghetti with garlic and oil—and naturally being an Italian dish, olive oil.
Eating at Italian restaurants is relatively expensive and having the buying power of a mediocre writer, I cannot afford to get my pasta fix as regularly as I would want to. So I decided to whip up my own version of Spaghetti Aglio Olio during the weekend. For a guy whose cooking experience consists of frying eggs and preparing instant noodles, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Here is the recipe I used:
Ingredients
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (to taste)
1 lb imported spaghetti or spaghettini
2 cups chicken broth
Directions
1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil, garlic, and salt in a large straight-sided skillet over medium heat, stirring often.
3. Keep a close watch here and adjust the heat as necessary b/c you want the garlic to slowly turn from opaque white to a slightly translucent golden without a hint of browning.
4. As soon as the garlic is golden, immediately add 2 cups chicken broth; be careful you do not burn yourself as the oil has a tendency to spatter.
5. Increase the heat and boil vigorously until the garlic is soft and the liquid has reduced by half.
6. Taste and add additional salt, if necessary.
7. Add a generous amount of salt to the boiling water; as soon as the water comes back to a boil, drop in the spaghetti.
8. Stir often until the spaghetti is al dente.
9. Drain and transfer the pasta to the skillet.
10. Over medium-high heat, toss the spaghetti in the sauce until it is nicely coated.
11. Serve immediately.
Eaten with fried canned salmon and washed down with some Boone’s apple fruit wine, I had a truly sumptuous meal. And more importantly, although I know that this was a very simple dish, I can finally say this to those who criticized my cooking skills in the past and told me that I couldn’t cook for the life of me:
Up yours! J
