Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

A simple 5-ingredient pasta dish that I made so often to the point where I memorized it completely. Delicious, surprisingly customizable, and great for any occasion.

disclaimer: this is not a traditional recipe for Aglio e Olio.

Yield: 1-2 Servings

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 15 mins | Total time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• spaghetti (or any long pasta you have on hand)
• salt, for the pasta water
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• Pasta water. Important for forming the sauce.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano, ideally hand-grated
• Lemon juice (optional, but I really like it)

Instructions

• Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. I say pan instead of pot because with less water, you get more starch. Add the spaghetti and cook until just shy of al dente (about two minutes less than the package suggests).
• Don't throw away the starchy water just yet.
• While the pasta is cooking, chop up your parsely into fine pieces and slice your garlic into thin slices.
• Warm the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and chili flakes and cook gently, swirling the pan often, until the garlic turns pale gold, four to five minutes.
• DON'T burn the garlic.
• When your garlic is good, turn down your head and add a splash of the starchy pasta water. It will sizzle with the oil and form a nice emulsion.
• When your pasta is just shy of al dente, add it in with the pan with the garlic, along with your parsley.
• Add splashes of pasta water and stir well. The more pasta water, the "creamier" your sauce. Add a squeeze of lemon if you like.
• Plate right away once the consistency is good. sprinkle on Parmigiano Reggiano if you like.
• ENJOY!

Recipe Websites

• The Burnt Butter Table is a simple and typical recipe website When viewing an individual recipe, the page includes writing about the recipe, but has a 'Jump to Recipe' button which is good, but easily missed. The page does feature photos of the process of making the recipe, which helps with clarity.


• Posh Journal Looks like the upgradeded website that I wanted to make. It has links to other recipes neatly displayed under the main title, the ingredients and steps, pictures, and finally a compact whole recipe at the end.


• Scordo it's simpler than the other websites, but it still has the necessary information for me to cook something. I like this one the best because I don't have to scroll 15-hundred times to get past the useless preamble.

Non-Recipe Websites

• Comicfury Is a decently dense yet still navagatable website for webcomics. Lots and lots of options, as well as custom html and css support for your own comic sites. The main page is simple and clean, with no annoying ads; just the art of other people

• Stripe.com is a dense, technical website with restrained accent color with minimal decoration for its own sake. A true utility website that doesn't look shoddy nor overstimulating. Takes some time to get used to due to minimal pointers, but it's good.

• Makeship A fun market for plushies and internet fandom products. The overall design is clean and rather spacious on a computer screen. A little disorganized as you have to scroll down far to look at all the different catagories, but it does the job. One of the more polished online fandom markets.