Pasta with olive oil and red pepper flakes

[Katherine]

You are right. Fresh pasta on the brain.

[hillvalley]

It's cold and rainy again and will be for the next three days.

But I just made my first bowl of olive oil with garlic, red pepper flakes and a ton of parmesean (breaking in my new plane grater)

[stephenc]

Yeah, I like this recipe, except made with rigatoni and topped with bolognese sauce.

[Carlovski]

Yeah, I like this recipe, except made with rigatoni and topped with bolognese sauce.

Variations on this are pretty much a staple for me - I often add Broccoli (Purple sprouting when it's in season - must have had it about 10 times in April) and sometimes a few anchovy fillets.

One slight variation I urge people to try is to add the the zest of a decent sized lemon, parsley and a small squeeze of the lemon juice. I usually make it with linguini. A good tip is to slightly underdo the pasta, then add the the oil in the pan with a bit of the water, then add the lemon juice. Allow to cook further in the sauce - for longer than usual so the pasta ends up slightly fried with the lemon zest and parsely clinging to the strands, even slightly browned and crispy in places. You may want a final slug of well flavoured oil.

No cheese with this one, but a handful of crisp breadrumbs (Maybe with a hint of rosemary?) are good.

[Carlovski]

Dear Francesca by Mary Contini has a great description of how to prepare all'oglio pasta dishes with several variations. Good read too.

[markf424]

OK, fine. I'm making this for lunch this afternoon. You've pushed me over the edge, people.

[tommy]

OK, fine. I'm making this for lunch this afternoon. You've pushed me over the edge, people.

our work here is done.

[Suzanne F]

Tommy, YOUR work is never done.

But now I realize why I posted about making this to the thread on "Cooking for One." This, and the fact that I just worked on a new book by Marcella Hazan (no, she doesn't give a recipe for it, but does mention it along with some great ammunition in the fresh-versus-dried pasta debate).

And, of course, since HWOE is away tonight, guess I'll have to make it just for me!

[Dana]

I just finished my lunch of gemilli with evoo, garlic, dried pepper flakes, a handful of spinach and a few currents. So good, I think I'll fix it again tomorrow. I just love currents with spinach.

[PopsicleToze]

I know I'm a little late for the topic, but I didn't see anything with roasted potatoes included (yes, a starch within a starch) This was the first recipe I used to make the dish, and it was great. Used it for a side dish, and had guests from youngsters to my grandmother. Everyone loved it! I still use the basic dish, but use red pepper flakes now and vary it up a bit (per bottom note). The main dish that day was fried shrimp. I wasn't very good at planning menus back then, but I've improved somewhat

Spaghetti and Potatoes with Garlic and Oil

2 large baking potatoes with skin, scrubbed

12 ounces spaghetti

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

12 cloves garlic, sliced, not chopped

1 dried hot pepper, chopped

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

¼ cup chopped, fresh Italian parsley

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Prick potatoes with a fork. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until tender. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut crosswise into ¼-inch thick slices. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the spaghetti until tender but still firm, 8 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat the olive oil until very hot. Add the garlic, hot pepper and potato. Reduce the heat to moderate and cook, stirring frequently, until the ingredients are lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Drain the spaghetti as soon as it is cooked. Add it to the saucepan with the oil, garlic, hot pepper and potatoes. Mix well over moderate heat. Season with salt and pepper. Divide the pasta amount 4 heated bowls, pouring any remaining oil over the top of the pasta. Sprinkle each serving with chopped parsley and additional salt/pepper to taste. [1990]

Variation 2001: After garlic is barely golden, remove it from the skillet. Add a whole bulb of freshly roasted garlic pulp into the olive oil. (To roast the garlic, just cut the entire head off of the whole garlic so that the tops of the cloves are exposed. Drizzle the garlic head—skin and all—with olive oil and wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Roast in oven for maybe 45 minutes or so at a moderate heat. When cooked, use your fingers to mash out the garlic. It will be the consistency of a paste.) Stir the roasted garlic into the olive oil, and then add a splash of white wine. Continue with recipe and sprinkle the golden garlic on top of the finished dish.

[agnolottigirl]

This, and the fact that I just worked on a new book by Marcella Hazan (no, she doesn't give a recipe for it, but does mention it along with some great ammunition in the fresh-versus-dried pasta debate).

Oooh, details! Title? When will it be out? Marcella is my hero(ine). . . .

[Rushina]

I just have to jump in here,

THis is a recipe I developed after we had it for dinner at a hole-in-the-wall place in Mohali India that served it for Rs. 20 a plate under the name garlic noodles. It probably had a hefty dose of MSG too but I never used any and did not miss it.

The ingredients for the sauce can be adjusted to taste. Since the advent of our son at the dinner table, the chilli quotient is low but since I am athe cook and I like Garlic that is always high.

Chilli Flakes to taste

Finely chopped corriander

Juice of a quarter of lemon

Smidgen of honey or sugar

Garlic minced

Olive oil (about half a cup to 250 gms uncooked pasta. Generally Spaghetti)

Boil the pasta al dente strain and stick back into the same pot. Mix all the ingrediants for the sauce together and pour over stir so all the spaghetti is well coated. Cover and leave on low flame for a bit to aid absorbtion.

Dont have a name for this one but When we moved to Bombay and I found Sun dried tomatoes at Crawford Market, here is the recipe I delivered to table...

One cup olive oil

5-6 cloves garlic crushed with rolling pin

Half cup of SD tomatoes, slivered

3-4 whole red chillies medium to hot, dry roasted.

Salt to taste

Heat the Olive oil to hot but not smoking, take off flame add all the other ingrediants, cover and leave overnight or bottle as is for later use.

To have with pasta follow method as for Garlic noodles

Rushina

[iii_bake]

   

Oh man.  I didn't even see the date on the original post.  That's hilarious.

←

This is not quite the anniversary of the two years, but i just search here for this Pasta Aglio e olio...for the Pronunciation of it.

Do you or anyone have any i dea?

I have also been wondering about the bread crumbs in pasta recipe....is it fine crumbs or coarse?

One more wonderings on Italian...The pasta Alla Norma....

Is there a meaning for Norma? is it the name? and how to pronounce.

SOS

[Franci]

This is not quite the anniversary of the two years, but i just search here for this Pasta Aglio e olio...for the Pronunciation of it.

Do you or anyone have any i dea?

I have also been wondering about the bread crumbs in pasta recipe....is it fine crumbs or coarse?

One more wonderings on Italian...The pasta Alla Norma....

Is there a meaning for Norma? is it the name? and how to pronounce.

SOS

←

Italian is very easy to pronunce, you read as it's written! But there are sounds that are difficolt for english speakers. Gl for ex. it's one sound, g and l are not pronouced separately. Also gnocchi, which for me is a painful word to hear mispronouced, or bruschetta. Che, ghe, chi, ghi are guttural che=ke chi=ki

here you can listen to the sounds

http://www.askoxford.com/languages/it/toi_.../pronunciation/

For pasta alla Norma, Norma referres to Vincenzo Bellini opera

The traditional pasta aglio e olio doesn't require breadcrumbs. Although many recipes in the South (Puglia and Sicily in particular) use often toasted bread crumbs to sprinkle over some pasta dishes: see orecchiette con le cime di rapa.

Edited July 31, 2006 by Franci (log)

[iii_bake]

This is not quite the anniversary of the two years, but i just search here for this Pasta Aglio e olio...for the Pronunciation of it.

Do you or anyone have any i dea?

I have also been wondering about the bread crumbs in pasta recipe....is it fine crumbs or coarse?

One more wonderings on Italian...The pasta Alla Norma....

Is there a meaning for Norma? is it the name? and how to pronounce.

SOS

←

Italian is very easy to pronunce, you read as it's written! But there are sounds that are difficolt for english speakers. Gl for ex. it's one sound, g and l are not pronouced separately. Also gnocchi, which for me is a painful word to hear mispronouced, or bruschetta. Che, ghe, chi, ghi are guttural che=ke chi=ki

here you can listen to the sounds

http://www.askoxford.com/languages/it/toi_.../pronunciation/

For pasta alla Norma, Norma referres to Vincenzo Bellini opera

The traditional pasta aglio e olio doesn't require breadcrumbs. Although many recipes in the South (Puglia and Sicily in particular) use often toasted bread crumbs to sprinkle over some pasta dishes: see orecchiette con le cime di rapa.

←

Thanks. at least i pronounce the bruschetta and gnocchi right.

Forgive me for being difficult to be enlightened, but how Norma is referred to the opera...does it have its own meaning and then used to refer to the opera?

I will visit the web for the pronunciation and also check the dish with bread crumbs out... Thanks a lot

[Franci]

Forgive me for being difficult to be enlightened, but how Norma is referred to the opera...does it have its own meaning and then used to refer to the opera?

I am translating from the collection of regional recipes of Oretta Zanini De Vita:

At the beginning of the twentieth century, at the house of Angelo Musco-famous Sicilian actor-were invited for dinner different artists. One of them being Nino Martoglio, a commedy writer. Donna Saridda, Musco's niece in law, prepared for the night a special dish of spaghetti dressed with a dense tomato sauce, spinkled with ricotta salata and enriched with fried egglpants. After trying it, Martoglio said: Donna Saridda, this is a real Norma (referring to the Bellini's Norma)! Clearly Martoglio considered the Norma a masterpiece and wanted to compliment Donna Saridda.

If there are other anecdotes I don't know.

[iii_bake]

Forgive me for being difficult to be enlightened, but how Norma is referred to the opera...does it have its own meaning and then used to refer to the opera?

I am translating from the collection of regional recipes of Oretta Zanini De Vita:

At the beginning of the twentieth century, at the house of Angelo Musco-famous Sicilian actor-were invited for dinner different artists. One of them being Nino Martoglio, a commedy writer. Donna Saridda, Musco's niece in law, prepared for the night a special dish of spaghetti dressed with a dense tomato sauce, spinkled with ricotta salata and enriched with fried egglpants. After trying it, Martoglio said: Donna Saridda, this is a real Norma (referring to the Bellini's Norma)! Clearly Martoglio considered the Norma a masterpiece and wanted to compliment Donna Saridda.

If there are other anecdotes I don't know.

←

Very kind of you, thanks.

I was puzzled by Bugialli 's recipes on Pasta Alla Norma which have 3 versions...norma I, II and III.

So it wook me a while to digest the opera issue...sorry.

again, Thank you very much indeed

[TPO]

I'm surprised I never noticed this thread sooner in the four years that it has been around. Anyway, my family makes pasta aglio e olio by sauteing garlic and red pepper flakes in lots of oil, then tossing in cooked spaghetti. I grew up on this dish, and my mom grew up on this dish. Typically we would make it with leftover spaghetti, although nowadays we're all known for making spaghetti specifically for this dish.

[TongoRad]

Add me to the list of those who never saw this thread, Tammy. I grew up with it prepared the way you describe- tossing the pasta with the oil/garlic in a bowl. Lately, though, I've been adding pasta water to the garlic pan to make a 'sauce' and then tossing the spaghetti (or linguine) in the pan as well. A few anchovies added to the garlic/oil at just the right time is always nice, too.

[Megan Blocker]

Add me to the list of those who never saw this thread, Tammy. I grew up with it prepared the way you describe- tossing the pasta with the oil/garlic in a bowl. Lately, though, I've been adding pasta water to the garlic pan to make a 'sauce' and then tossing the spaghetti (or linguine) in the pan as well. A few anchovies added to the garlic/oil at just the right time is always nice, too.

←

That's what I do, too! I usually add some extra pepper flakes to the top of the dish before serving, too, for color and HEAT! Ooooh, and the golden garlic...yum.

[alanamoana]

i know it strays from the traditional, but i used to toss in a handful of olive oil roasted garlic cloves (peeled cloves submersed in olive oil and slow roasted in the oven...like a confit) at the end. adds a touch of sweetness.

[Basilgirl]

Lidia's recipe is the best. It calls for 10 cloves of garlic and a judicious amount of pasta water to make the sauce.

[BeauNoze]

THIS dish is my comfort food, and the sole reason I could never stay on an Atkins- type diet.

Ok, this, and Carbonara.