STEPS 4 INGREDIENTS 5 TIME 20 MINS If you like your meals with a monster kick, this mouth-melting garlic pasta recipe with chili and oil will be right up your street. It’s convenient too, as it takes just 20 minutes to make.
Called ‘aglio, olio e peperoncino’ in Italian, it is a fiery spaghetti dish that’s easy to create and remember – making it great for whenever you’re short on time, ingredients or inspiration.
Enough blabbing from me then, let’s heat things up!
Serves 2
Ingredients: (For a printable PDF shopping list click here, or right-click this link and choose ‘Save target/link as’ to save the list for later.)
Extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic (you decide!)
1-4 chili peppers (up to you – if unsure choose one!)
Salt
200g/7oz spaghetti
Optional: 4-6 slices of nice crusty bread
Equipment
Large frying pan
Pasta pan
Sieve/colander
Timings
Preparation: 5 mins
Cooking: 15 mins
STEP 1 – Fill and boil a kettle. While that’s heating, peel the garlic and chop it long-ways. Carefully cut out its central ‘spine’ (this can be white or green and is hard to digest), then close again and chop as finely as possible.
Cut the green stalk end off the chili(s), then cut each vertically/long-ways in half and scrape out the seeds using a teaspoon. Slice very finely.
STEP 2 – Pour the kettle water into your pan and put on a high heat hob to get it boiling.
Cover half the frying pan in a thin layer of oil, throw in the garlic and chili and put on a medium/hot hob (I use setting 4 of 6) to get it heating. Be careful not to burn the oil, and when it’s hotter turn down to medium.
Tip: This advice applies to anytime you use chili, not just this garlic pasta recipe, and that is… when you‘ve handled chili, do not touch your eyes (talk about a sting!). Wash your hands to be sure.
STEP 3 – When the garlic’s golden, take the frying pan off the heat.
Your pasta water should be boiling by now. If so, throw in 2 tablespoons (one small handful) of salt, stir this in and drop in the spaghetti. Cook this as per its packet’s instructions.
STEP 4 – When your pasta is cooked ‘al dente’ (literally, ‘firm to the tooth’), drain it. Then put the frying pan back on a medium heat and drop in the pasta.
Heat through and mix for 2 minutes so the spaghetti is covered in the hot oily sauce.
Done!
To serve: My Italian bro-in-law Mauro likes filling out this garlic pasta recipe by toasting slices of crusty bread, rubbing them with half a cut clove of garlic (to lightly coat them) and using these as the base of each dish. He just angles the slices down into each bowl and drops the pasta on top.
If you have some spare red chilis, place one on top of each pasta serving too. This just looks neat.