Simple, fast and delicious! It's spaghetti with garlic, oil and chili pepper. A dish that is tempting at all hours— at noon as well as midnight. Easy, yes, but not everyone can make it with a nice cream ('cremina'). So today at PIATTO, let's see how to make spaghetti with garlic and oil with a dreamy creamy sauce. Let's start with the ingredients: pasta - spaghetti in our case - garlic (one clove per person), extra virgin olive oil (3 tablespoons per person) and chili pepper (one whole per person). However, it is important to know how to choose the peppers, as we will see shortly. Spaghetti with garlic and oil is a dish that takes about 10 minutes— just the time to cook the pasta. We will need a pot and a pan in which we will not only make our sauté (soffritto) but where we will cook our pasta almost entirely. We start by putting the water to boil and set the timer. Garlic: Garlic is the main flavor of the dish. It can be prepared in different ways, each of which will release a different amount of flavor and aroma. Obviously you can leave the garlic whole in the skin , we can crush it or cut it into slices and even make it a purée. I prefer it in thin slices because not only does it release a lot of its aroma but if cooked well, it will remain delicate in taste. Furthermore, for all those who do not want to dare to eat it after cooking, it is easier to remove than if it is chopped or pureed. And let's move on to the chili: which one to choose and in what proportions. Here I'm showing you three different peppers, with different levels of spiciness. It starts with the jalapeño and passes to the rawit and finally to the habanero. The rawit with its 100-150 thousand units of Scoville is spicy but not excessive. If you choose this, use one per person as I am doing. After all, we are not making penne all'arrabbiata but garlic and oil—where the chili actually arrives even later and is not present in the very original recipe if it ever existed. We cut it in half and remove the seeds. And then we mince it, taking care not to touch your eyes with the hands that have handled it. This little red beast; we have said that it is not super spicy but I guarantee you that if it comes into contact with the mucous membranes it makes itself felt. The pasta. If you want a beautiful cremina, we need to talk about the right pasta and how to cook it. To make a creamy sauce, which wraps the spaghetti and binds the pasta well with the rest, you need starch. Here I show you three very common brands and I want to clarify that we are not affiliated or sponsored with any of them. Barilla we will dismiss immediately— I do not recommend it for this dish. Between Rummo and La Molisana it is a slightly more open game, but the latter is the one that releases the most starch during cooking and it is the one we have selected here. However, look at the difference between Barilla and La Molisana— the latter bronze-drawn. Look at how the surface is more uneven, rough on the Molise rather than on the Barilla. This pasta when cooked in a pan and mixed properly releases a lot of starch and therefore it is perfect for what we are doing. Finally we cut the parsley, keeping the stems aside which we will put together with the garlic and the chilli pepper in the pan while we add the leaves only at the end of cooking and a little on the plate to garnish at the end. Now we've let the pasta boil just a couple of minutes— 2 at the most, just long enough to bend it a little. Oh! listen to me! No salt in the cooking water or you will regret it! And while the pasta is cooking its two minutes, we prepare the rest. We add abundant oil ... it is our only condiment ... and in goes the rest! A couple of minutes here too, not anymore. The garlic must turn golden but never ever turn brown or burnt! Medium heat... and what a fragrance! Here do you see? Golden, not burnt. And just in time for the pasta to arrive. Ah look how stiff it is still, just barely flexible. I put two ladles of hot cooking water and cook the pasta like a risotto; and this is why we say that we are "risottando" the pasta. It is not more difficult nor does it take longer— it is simply the best way to make the pasta release its starch which together with the water will create an emulsion with the oil (the so-called 'cremina'.) We continue adding the water a little at a time and then we cook until the pasta is al dente This risotto pasta technique can be used anytime the sauce is not a sauce (like a tomato sauce) but an emulsion. Or, when there are ingredients that do not bind well together such as oil with water. In these cases, the starch helps us and the more we have the better. And the mechanical action of the mixing removes the starch from the surface of the pasta and releases it where it is needed: in the pan. If you make spaghetti with clams for example, follow this procedure. we are almost there that cream is forming! let's continue adding the water here we are now let's add the parsley How wonderful! Look here, look here! garlic oil and chili pepper and who can argue with that?!? I'm almost tempted to make it again tonight. Ready to plate and give it a taste ... and here it is! Done in ten minutes. creamy, delicious Buon appetito! And don't forget to subscribe to PIATTO and let us know in the comments how you make your spaghetti with garlic, oil and chili pepper.
