Spaghetti with garlic and oil, aka spaghetti aglio e olio. Simple, quick, and delicious. This is my go-to pasta when I need a quick carb fix. The best part about this recipe is that you already have all the ingredients in your pantry and it costs less than $2 per serving!
This post is part of the series “Cooking with Doppio” – Doppio is my husband Jordan and the epic pasta master in our house. Check out his Mind Blowing Lobster Pasta, and (my personal fav) The Ultimate Lemon Pasta.
Hi, it's Jordan, aka Doppio guest writing to share another of my favorite pasta recipes with you. You've probably all had pasta with garlic and oil before. Perhaps at the corner Italian restaurant where it was called Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, or at a friend's house on a Tuesday night. If you worked in restaurants for years like me (and Abra) you may have enjoyed this as an after-shift meal.
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio was the go-to “family meal” (restaurant speak for staff dinner) for a hungry crew who, after having worked a sweaty 10-hour dinner service needed something to refuel and replenish the 5 pounds of weight lost churning out 400 covers behind the line. The kitchen could get as hot as 110 degrees and no one ever stopped moving on nights when the reservations were stacked until 12 am. In other words, everyone was very hungry once work ended. So, how do you feed and reward a hardworking crew without carving into the evening's profits? Enter, Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, the perfect dish to satisfy a hungry band of depleted cooks, bussers, servers, bartenders, and managers after an honest night of blood sweat, and tears.
Despite being surrounded by a kitchen full of seafood just plucked from the water, hearty thick chops, and freshly harvested vegetables, this simple dish of humble roots was the single thing that everyone consistently craved; the perfect cure for their exhaustion, empty bellies, and tired minds. Yes, carbs can be healing.
Loved for its simplicity and straight-to-the-point deliciousness, a chef friend once told me that when he cooked at home for himself, this was the dish he made most. Not Dover sole, not a thick steak, not some exotic melange of wood foraged morels, just this simple spaghetti with garlic and oil.
Originating in Campania, Pasta aglio e olio is an example of cucina povera, an approach to cooking where the most is made of simple ingredients. This dish creates the base for other iconic Neapolitan recipes like spaghetti alle vongole or spaghetti with anchovies. Now it is usually prepared as an easy dinner that can be made at a moment's notice with ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. Its simplicity and quick preparation make it a perfect quick lunch or indulgent midnight snack.
You'll Love this Recipe
- A classic that always delivers – This is one of those pasta dishes I return to often. It is no wonder that it's a favorite amongst chefs. It is very simple to prepare, cooks up quickly, and is so satisfyingly delicious. Master this preparation and you will always have an option for dinner. You will always be able to impress a guest and always be well-fed.
- 4 simple ingredients – You will be amazed at how much flavor you can coax out of 4 very basic ingredients that cost about the same as a can of soda.
- Speaking of cost – Can you believe that you can make a delicious and healthy meal for 2 for the price of a can of soda? WOW!
Let's Get Cooking!
Ingredients and Helpful Substitution Tips
Detailed measurements and ingredients can be found within the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Spaghetti: Or if you are lucky enough to find it, chitarra, which is a square-sided spaghetti. The texture that the squared edges create makes for a really satisfying chewy mouthful. Feel free to use linguine if you are in a pinch. I find this dish works best with a long noodle.
- Olive oil: Use a very good quality oil. As with all my recipes that use only a few ingredients, the importance of quality increases as the number of ingredients decreases. However, I do not recommend using your specialty finishing olive oils for this dish. No need to use a 1/2 cup of your most expensive stuff for this type of causal cooking. Those oils are usually best for finishing a dish where their subtle flavors can be most appreciated and left untouched by high heat.
- Garlic: In the photographed dish I used 3 large cloves of garlic to 6 oz of pasta. It was a perfect amount of garlic. You may prefer more and I encourage you to follow your taste buds. I slice the garlic thicker (approx. 1/8 inch) for this dish to prevent it from burning in the pan. This can happen very easily if you are not watching it carefully. It is nearly guaranteed to happen if you slice your garlic very thin.
- Crushed red pepper flakes: Traditional spaghetti aglio e olio/ garlic and oil is made with fresh peperoncini (red hot chile peppers). These are a little challenging to find at your local grocery store. I happily use crushed red pepper flakes all the time for this dish, and the results are always fantastic. Freshness does matter with crushed red pepper. If the only red pepper flakes in your pantry have been sitting in a drawer for 5 years, its worth getting a fresh batch.
- Fresh Parsley: finely-minced fresh parsley adds the perfect herbaceousness and complimentary flavor to the garlic and oil.
The Technique- How to Make This Recipe
- Cook the spaghetti. In a generously salted pot of boiling water, cook the pasta until it is just shy of being al dente. (The pasta will finish cooking in the oil/pasta water mixture at the end.)
- Prepare the garlic and oil Once your pasta has been cooking for about 5 minutes, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add your sliced garlic and crushed red pepper flakes and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes. Lower and adjust the heat to ensure that the garlic does not burn. The safest technique is to keep the pan on low-med heat and allow the garlic and red pepper flakes to perfume and flavor the oil slowly as the garlic becomes translucent. There truly is no need to put color on the garlic. I have had this dish dozens of times in Italy where the garlic is still translucent white. The threshold between golden brown and burned is very small so as soon as you start to see the garlic develop color, it's time to remove the pan from the heat. (Note: the garlic will continue to cook once you add the hot pasta water). Golden garlic looks and tastes great, with a slightly sweeter flavor but it is essential that it has not crossed the line to burn.
- Toss the pasta in the sauce. Once the pasta is cooked for 1 minute under the package instructions, use tongs to transfer it to the sauté pan, along with 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta water. (If you have removed the pan from the heat to avoid burning the garlic, now is the time to return it to the flame and get it hot again.) The pasta water should bubble audibly as it hits the pan. This is a good sound, don't be alarmed. If this is your first time making this it will feel like a lot of water, don't worry, it will cook down into a glossy sauce. Toss the pasta continuously to evenly coat in the garlic sauce. You may also notice the garlic take on a little bit of color. This too is also okay as the water will keep it from burning. Through the magic of emulsification, the garlicky oil and water turn into a silky glossy coating over every strand of pasta. If the sauce looks a bit too dry, add more pasta water 1/8 cup at a time while keeping the pan over medium heat.
- Add the fresh chopped parsley. Once the sauce starts to form and the water has evaporated by half, add 1/4 cup of fresh chopped parsley and continue to mix. Add the remaining 1/4 parsley when you remove the pan from the heat. Mix and toss more to fully incorporate.
- Serve. Serve immediately. This dish is best when it's fresh off the flame and the sauce is silky smooth.
Expert Tips
- Be sure to salt your pasta water. As a guideline, your pasta water should have enough salt in it that it tastes like the sea. Salting your water is your only opportunity to season the pasta before it goes into the sauce. It is important and makes a big difference. If you have been wondering why your home-cooked pasta never tastes as good as the pasta at the restaurant, this is likely the main reason.
- Emulsify emulsify emulsify. This is the trick to take this dish over the top. I have met so many people who could never understand why their aglio e olio never tasted like it did on that trip to Rome or at their favorite restaurant. When I learned they were taking drained pasta and adding it to a bowl of oil and (usually burned) garlic I understood why. Adding starchy pasta water to your oil and garlic mixture, along with the noodles is the key to building the sauce. The combination of heat, oil, and starchy water creates a magic potion that coats every strand of spaghetti in a clingy garlicky elixir from the Italian gods.
- Slice your garlic thicker than you think. We've all seen that scene in Goodfellas where Paulie cuts the garlic with a razor blade so it melts into the sauce. Don't do that! It's not going to work in this dish. Garlic cooked in hot oil goes from soft and sweet to burned and acrid in seconds. Once it's burned it's ruined the entire batch of oil with a burnt flavor. If this happens, start over.
- No cheese needed. I know some people can't think of having pasta without some freshly-grated Parmesan or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top. This is a case where less is more. There is already so much flavor on the plate that to add any more elements to the recipe is to diminish the perfection of its simplicity. Plus, the dry nature of the cheese tends to clump and get pasty in this preparation. Try it without the cheese.
A Foundation Sauce
This sauce is the base for many other great Italian classics like Vongole or Primavera. Once you nail this easy technique you can start adding blanched vegetables like broccoli to your pan or make a restaurant-worthy garlicky clam sauce in a snap.
Storage, Reheating, and Freezing Instructions
- STORAGE – store in an airtight container for a day.
- REHEATING – may be warmed on the stovetop over a low-medium flame or in the microwave for 20 seconds. This dish is really best eaten immediately.
Abra's Nutrition Tips! Gluten Free
You can substitute gluten-free pasta for traditional spaghetti. However, I recommend using a pasta shape such as rigatoni, penne or a spiral as gluten-free long noodles tend to break apart with any sort of agitation. They will crumble during the emulsification process.
FAQ
When I used to work in restaurants, we usually ate this on its own. However, sometimes the kitchen crew would make this as a starchy side to accompany a steak or a pork chop as a special occasion ‘family meal'. Occasionally we added a salad of escarole and walnuts to the mix, usually, it was just the pasta aglio e olio and meat. If there was no special occasion to justify a steak or chop, we would have just the spaghetti aglio e olio. No one ever complained about this meal. (Abra note – add a veggie side dish, a big green salad is perfect)
Dietary Modifications
This recipe is vegetarian and vegan
- Gluten-Free – Use gluten free noodles, but I recommend a shorter noodle
If you’ve tried this recipe, don’t forget to rate it and leave a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil – Aglio e Olio
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6 oz dried spaghetti or Chitarra
- 3 cloves fresh garlic sliced 1/8 inch thick
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Set a medium pot of water over med-high heat. Once water is boiling add enough salt that it tastes like the sea. (I use 2.5 teaspoons of kosher salt with 8 cups of water.) Add spaghetti and cook until just under al dente—approx 1 minute under the package instructions.
- Finely chop 1/4 cup of parsley and set aside.
- Slice 3 large cloves of garlic into 1/8 inch slices
- Over medium heat add extra virgin olive oil to a large saute pan. Once warmed, add the sliced garlic and 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper.
- Allow the garlic and red pepper to infuse and flavor the oil. Be careful not to let the garlic burn. Adjust the temperature as necessary. Cook until garlic turns translucent and then turn the heat to very low. Tip!!! If you see the garlic start to turn golden, remove the pan from the heat. (If this happens before your pasta is ready to add to the pan, you will need to return the pan to the heat when the pasta goes in.) The goal is to time it so that as your garlic turns translucent or just starts to turn golden the pasta is ready to go into the pan. Better to have to reheat the oil than risk burning the garlic.
- Once pasta has cooked, use tongs to add the pasta along with 1/2 cup of starchy pasta water to the pan with the hot garlic and oil mixture. The oil and water will start to boil fizz. Allow this reaction to happen while stirring/sautéing the pasta in the sauce to emulsify into a silky coating over all the pasta strands.
- Add the 1/2 of the chopped parsley and continue to mix to incorporate.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining parsley and continue to mix to incorporate and coat the strands of pasta. If pasta is too dry,add an additional 1/8th cup of water at a time while mixing until it turn glassy and smooth again. Reference the second to last pic to get an idea of how saucy your mixture should be, at the bottom of a finished helping of this dish.
- Serve immediately. Bon appetito!
Notes
- Be sure to salt your pasta water. As a guideline, your pasta water should have enough salt in it that it tastes like the sea. Salting your water is your only opportunity to season the pasta before it goes into the sauce. It is important and makes a big difference. If you have been wondering why your home-cooked pasta never tastes as good as the pasta at the restaurant, this is likely the main reason.
- Emulsify emulsify emulsify. This is the trick to taking this dish over the top. I have met so many people who could never understand why their aglio e olio never tasted like it did on that trip to Rome or at their favorite restaurant. When I learned they were taking drained pasta and adding it to a bowl of oil and (usually burned) garlic I understood why. Adding starchy pasta water to you oil and garlic mixture, along with the noodles is the key to building the sauce. The combination of heat, oil and starchy water creates a magic potion that coats every strand of spaghetti in a clingy garlicy elixir from the Italian gods.
- Slice your garlic thicker than you think. We've all seen that scene in Goodfellas where Paulie cuts the garlic with a razor blade so it melts into the sauce. Don't do that! It's not going to work in this dish. Garlic cooked in hot oil goes from soft and sweet to burned and acrid in seconds. Once it's burned it's ruined the entire batch of oil with a burnt flavor. If this happens, start over.
- No cheese needed. I know some people can't think of having pasta without some freshly-grated Parmesan or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top. This is a case where less is more. There is already so much flavor on the plate that to add any more elements to the recipe is to diminish the perfection of its simplicity. Plus, the dry nature of the cheese tends to clump and get pasty in this preparation. Try it without the cheese.
