Spaghetti Aglio E Olio

 

This is a easy dish to prepare. Watch this very useful video and you will be able to cook Aglio E Olio for your friends in no time.

Ingredients (serves 4 pax)

50g garlic cloves 

240g spaghetti pasta

5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

fresh parsley (optional)

parmasen cheese (optional)

chilli flakes (optional)

your choice of protein e.g. sausages, bacon (optional)

Method:

1. Slice the garlic thinly* and put into a skillet. Add extra virgin olive oil into the skillet and saute the garlic over low heat until the garlic is light golden in colour (it took about 15 minutes). Stir occasionally to brown the garlic evenly. If using chilli flakes, sprinkle them into the skillet and saute together with the garlic.

2. At the same time, bring a pot/wok of water to boil. Add some salt in it and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain the pasta and apportion into serving plates.

3. Once garlic is ready, remove the skillet from heat (note that the garlic will continue to cook and turn brown, so make sure you do not over-saute them). Pour the olive oil and garlic over the pasta. Toss the pasta and garnish with fresh parsley and parmasen cheese.

4. Enjoy! Below picture shows a plate of Aglio E Olio with sausages and garnished with dried green laver seaweed (aonori).

And below plate is served with prawns. To make this, once the garlic is ready at step 3, remove the garlic and olive oil from the skillet. Using medium fire, heat up the skillet until it smokes. Place the prawns in the skillet in 1 layer (no overlaps), sprinkle some salt and dried oregano, cover the skillet and cook for 3 minutes. After that, stir the prawns for 1 minute before removing from the skillet. Add tomato slices (deseeded, or use cherry tomatoes) into the skillet, stir fry until the tomatoes soften a little before removing from the skillet. Add a few tablespoon of water from cooking the spaghetti to deglaze the skillet. Off the fire, place the cooked spaghetti into the skillet and toss. Finally, add the prawns, tomatoes, garlic and all of the olive oil into the skillet and toss!

* instead of slicing the garlic, you can cut them up into small cubes.