Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino…just the name makes me think to that nice and inviting smell 🙂

Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino is another of the most famous and simple recipes of the Italian cuisine, it’s that recipe you can do when you don’t know what to do, and since the ingredients are few and very simple there are not many options about how to make it, so it’s very easy.

I like the traditional and usual way to cook it, that’s what I usually do, but sometimes is interesting to make the things a bit different, but without revolutionizing the original recipe. In this case I took the idea from a recipe of the Italian chef Alessandro Negrini, with some little change.

As I said, this is one of the most simple recipes in Italy, and especially when the ingredients are very few there is always the same rule to follow: the ingredients we are going to choose they must be good quality ingredients, otherwise we are not going to have that special taste which made this simple recipe famous. So for the best result we need a good extra virgin olive oil, and a good spaghetti, possibly those made with good quality durum and using slow drying technique at low temperatures, those spaghetti which are very rich of starch that will help the oil to attach on the pasta since this sauce has no solid parts, creating in this way a cream to taste at every bite and not leaving all the sauce on the bottom of the dish.

INGREDIENTS (2 people):

• 200 g of Spaghetti (or Spaghettoni)
• 60 g of extra virgin olive oil 
• 60 g of natural water
• 3/4 cloves of garlic 
• chili 
• parsley
• salt

1. First of all put the water to boil with salt, and when it’s boiling we drop the pasta (if you choose a good quality pasta you have to use enough water, at least 1 liter for each 100 g of pasta, as I said they have a lot of starch and they require enough water).
2. Then we take another small pot and we blanch the garlic: we cut the garlic in half, we remove the possible inner green part, then we put it into 2 fingers of hot water in the pot and we bring it to the boil, then we throw away the water. We do it 3 or 4 times, in this way the garlic loses its sharpness, and we will not have the garlic taste in our mouth during the whole day 🙂
3. Then we put the extra virgin olive oil, the natural water and the garlic in a cylindrical container, and with an immersion blender we mix everything, creating a nice emulsion.
4. Now take a bowl and pour inside the emulsion through a sieve/strainer to make it smoother, than add the chopped parsley and grate the chili on it: I previously put a fresh chili in the freezer, so it’s easier to grate it. In alternative you can just slice a fresh chili. Our sauce is ready 🙂 (or to add some saltiness and an extra taste, you could use also one anchovy fillet in salt when you mix with the blender, or one spoon of Colatura di alici, but for me it’s perfect also without, simple, just aglio, olio and peperoncino, as the name suggests).
5. When the spaghetti are cooked, drain them and put them in the bowl. Mix fast and well, and let the starch creating that nice cream, so that the sauce will be attached to all the pasta.
6. Serve it and enjoy it as fast as possible, before they get cold! 🙂

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Products used:

Pasta: spaghettoni from Pastificio Gentile