Adventures in Cooking: Pasta Aglio Olio

[khaosworks]

Spent most of yesterday unconscious and recovering from the last few days. Need to start on work now, though:

1. Finish grading freshman history exams.
2. Start reading "Twilight of the Gods", about the Scopes monkey trial, for American Legal History.
3. Start reading "Rabelais and his World" and write a five-pager on it due Friday for Theory and Practice.
4. Think about pulling together a bibliography for a research paper on Miranda v. Arizona for American Legal History.

In the meantime, I decided to have a change from rice, so I whipped this together quickly this morning. It's probably the most basic pasta sauce you can get, good both on its own or if you serve with side dishes.


Pasta Aglio Olio
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 lb pasta
1 tbsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp red chilli flakes (optional)
Handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Boil water for pasta. As water starts bubbling furiously, add 1 tbsp salt to the water and add the pasta. Cook until al dente.

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Sautee the garlic and chilli flakes over medium heat until golden, but not brown (it gets bitter if it's brown). Try to time it so that the garlic/oil mix and pasta are done at the same time. If you can't keep the mix aside and heat it just prior to mixing with the pasta.

3. Drain the pasta. Add the parsley to the oil and stir before pouring it into the pasta while still warm, tossing it so the oil coats the pasta well.

4. Serve on warm plates. Salt and pepper to taste.