Aglio e Olio (Garlic & Oil Spaghetti)

Ingredients

• Spaghetti200 g
• Garlic · thinly sliced5 clove
• Extra-virgin olive oil5 tbsp
• Peperoncino (or chili flakes) · to taste1 tsp
• Parsley · chopped2 tbsp
• Pasta cooking water · reserved, to emulsify1 ladle
• Salt · generous for the pasta water1 to taste
• Parmigiano · optional1 to taste

Steps

1. Boil salted water and cook the spaghetti 1 minute short of the package time. Reserve a ladle of pasta water.

   ⏲ 9 min

2. Meanwhile, gently cook the sliced garlic in olive oil over low heat until pale gold (don't let it burn or it turns bitter).

   ⏲ 5 min

3. Add the peperoncino and cook 30 seconds more for aroma.

   ⏲ 1 min

4. Add the pasta and a splash of pasta water to the pan and toss hard over high heat so the oil and water emulsify and coat the noodles creamy.

   ⏲ 2 min

5. Off the heat, stir in the parsley. Loosen with more pasta water if needed.

   ⏲ 1 min

6. Twirl onto plates and finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Add Parmigiano if you like.

Tips & Variations

The basics behind this dish

• Heat Control: Preheating, Oil, and Reading the PanThe same ingredients become a different dish depending on pan temperature. When to add the oil, how to read heat by sound, and which dishes want low heat instead.
• Why Sauces Split: Emulsions and Pan SaucesA cream sauce breaking and a carbonara scrambling are the same failure. Temperature and emulsifiers — plus how to bring a split sauce back.
• Blooming Spices: Why Aromatics Go into Fat FirstStir ground spice into liquid and half the aroma never arrives, because most aroma compounds are fat-soluble. The thirty-second window, and the order things go in.