AGLio e Olio – A classical Italian recipe

Aglio e Olio is one of the most famous and basic Italian pasta recipes which takes literally 10 mins to finish. Aglio e Olio means Garlic and Oil which are the main ingredients of this dish. What I am making today is Alio, Olio e Peperoncino which is chilly peppers. I learnt this recipe from a local cafe in Murano.

My son is the biggest critique of Aglio Olio and I am proud that he approves the one that I make :). He had Aglio Olio for every single meal during our 15 day trip to Italy and now he can give the perfect feedback. There have been situations where he has very confidently given feedback to Chefs of star hotels and impressed them. So you now know, how important it is for me to make it perfect 🙂 . Aglio e Olio is such a comforting dish that we all prefer having this most of the time. Apart from this our family favourite is the One Pot Pasta.

Italy has been one of my favourite countries by far. We lived in an AirBnB in Murano a small Island next to Venice. Murano is famous for their beautiful glass work. Murano is small island which is busy in the morning with tourists visiting the glass factories and the stores selling beautiful glasswares. But in the evening the place gets quieter and peaceful. Suddenly it turns into a very homely place where the locals are sitting outside the cafe or restaurants till late. I loved walking around those narrow lanes with beautiful houses, gardens, flowers. People are friendly and warm and I just didn’t want to leave that place.

We always have enjoyed slow vacations than vacations where we cover touristy places. We make it a point to walk around the market, those lesser known lanes to understand the essence of the city. Airbnbs have been such a boon in this matter as it gives us the opportunity to actually feel like we are living there. I love cooking with the local produce and I cook at least one meal in a day. One of my favourite countries with beautiful produce was Italy.

Ingredients

Spagetti – Handful

10 cloves – Garlic

1 tsp – Ground black pepper

1/2 cup – Fresh Parsley

Salt to taste

Red chilly flakes

1/4 cup – Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Lets start with boiling the spaghetti.

Take a utensil with more height for this and fill it 3/4th with water.

Let the water come start boiling before you add the spaghetti.

The air bubbles in the boiling water is what keeps the spaghetti from sticking from each other.

Once the water starts boiling, add the spaghetti to it and boil it according to the instructions on the packet.

Once the spaghetti is cooked perfectly, take out a cup of pasta water and drain the remaining.

Wash the spaghetti in cold running water to stop them from further cooking.

Put the spaghetti into a bowl and drizzle 1/2 olive oil over it and give it a good mix to avoid them from sticking to each other.

In a heavy bottom pan heat the remaining olive oil.

Add ground pepper and finely chopped garlic to it and let the garlic start browning at the edges.

Add cooked spaghetti, 1/4 cup of spaghetti water, salt and give it a good mix.

Add half the parsley and let the spaghetti soak up the pasta water completely.

Once that is done, add the remaining parsley and give it a good mix . I serve it to my son at this stage and then add the chilly flakes.

Add the flakes according to your taste and mix it well.

Serve it with some more fresh parsley, parmesan cheese (optional), chilly flakes and a good drizzle of olive oil on top.