Spaghetti aglio e olio — midnight food
“The best meals are the ones you did not plan and still remember.”
Extremely easy, and the whole timing is the pasta's timing: water to boil plus cooking time, about fifteen minutes. Everything happens in the last four minutes, which is why it is the perfect thing to make when you are hungry, it is late, and the fridge is a philosophy exam.
Ingredients
- 100 g spaghetti per person
- 2 cloves garlic per person; more is better
- fresh parsley, 4 stems per person; more is better
- cayenne pepper or chilli flakes
- olive oil, generous
- a pinch of salt
You need a pot for the pasta and a pan big enough to take the spaghetti afterwards.
Steps
- Boil the water, salt it, and put the spaghetti in. Start the clock now.
- Crush or mince the garlic finely.
- Cut the parsley in two. The lower half with the stems, chopped small, is part A. The leafy top, chopped a little bigger, is part B.
- Three minutes before the pasta is done (usually around the seventh minute), put a generous pour of olive oil in the pan with the garlic and parsley part A. A pinch of cayenne if everyone likes heat. Two minutes on the flame, no browning.
- One minute before the pasta is done, lift it from the pot straight into the pan. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of the pasta water per person. Toss and stir for a minute; the water should disappear into a silky coating.
- Add parsley part B, toss again, plate.
- Chilli on top to taste. Eat standing up if you have to.
Tips
- The pasta water is the sauce. Do not drain it away in the sink before you have taken your spoonfuls.
- Garlic burnt is garlic ruined. Medium heat, and it goes in with the oil, not after.
- Leftovers? See second-day spaghetti.
midnight, one lamp on
the garlic hits the oil and
the flat wakes up hungry