Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Feeling the pinch after the holidays?
Here is a budget-friendly recipe for a quick and easy dinner that proves you don’t need a lot of money to eat well.
This simple, pantry-clearing pasta is super easy and only needs little more than garlic and olive oil but the crucial step to keep swirling the pan to distribute the garlic and oil properly.
Speaking of cheap and easy – don’t forget our pasta and wine night happens every Tuesday for just $26.50
The recipe
spaghetti aglio e olio
- Serves
- 4
- Prep time
- 15 minutes
- Cooking time
- 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 8 garlic cloves, sliced translucently thin
- 2 anchovy fillets
- 200ml extra-virgin olive oil
- Pinch dried chilli flakes, plus extra to taste
- 500g dried spaghetti
- ½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley, including stems
- Sea salt to taste
- Cracked pepper to taste
- 60g pangrattato (toasted fine bread crumbs)
- 60g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
Method
- Place a large pot of water on to boil. Salt generously, to the taste of the sea. Set a colander in the sink.
- Place the garlic, anchovies and half the olive oil over a low heat in a wide, shallow pan. Ensure it’s large enough to eventually accommodate all the pasta too. Warm through for 8–10 minutes, allowing the anchovies to “melt” and the garlic to turn translucent. Add chilli flakes and set aside.
- When the water is at a rapid boil, add the pasta. Stir gently until it comes back to the boil. Cook for 5 minutes only. The pasta may seem slightly under cooked, but further cooking will happen in the sauce.
- Drain the pasta and reserve 1 cup of the cooking water.
- Return the garlic and anchovy sauce to the stove. Add the pasta, cooking water and the rest of the olive oil. Set the heat to medium-high and begin swirling the pan in a circular motion. Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.
- You’ll begin to see the liquid evaporating, leaving the olive oil to emulsify with the starchy cooking water. The slightly undercooked pasta will soften as it soaks up the sauce and absorbs its flavour.
- Add parsley, pepper and salt to taste, then divide between plates. The sauce should be ever-so-slightly hugging the spaghetti. Add a pinch of chilli flakes to each plate and a sprinkle of pangrattato and grated parmesan.
SpaghettiOil & GarlicSeafood