Aglio e olio with a little extra

Famous worldwide is the italian dish combining garlic and olive oil with pasta. My recipe takes that classic combination a little further to suit my personal preferences. Nothing wrong with the original dish though!

Serves 4

Ingredients

500 g spaghetti, or spaghettini

75 ml good quality olive oil

5 cloves garlic finely sliced and chopped

a good pinch of dried red chilli flakes

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

150 g lardons (adjust to personal taste) 

a good grind of black pepper

Cook the spaghetti or spaghettini as per packet instructions in a large pan of lightly salted boiling water. The sauce only takes 5 to 6 minutes, so please account for this in your timings!

Heat the olive oil in a large high sided pan and fry off quite quickly the lardons until golden and crispy. Remove from the pan and immediately cook the finely chopped garlic in the lovely bacon flavoured oil for 1 minute, but do not allow to brown. Add the chilli flakes, season well with the black pepper and give a good squeeze with the lemon juice and cook for no more than another 30 seconds. Add back the lardons.

Drain the pasta well and add to the sauce immediately. Mix well and ensure that every strand is coated, giving a wonderful slippery and shiny appearance to the pasta. Season with another quick grind of black pepper.

Serve immediately.

For me, this is the ultimate late night supper food, simple to prepare, quick, but a very tasty eating experience. I never tire of this dish - it has a very high reward to effort ratio, the best type of cooking!

Comments

[Frank Fariello]

Hi, Paul! Thanks for this interesting variation on the classic dish.

By the way, did you know that your recipe is actually very similar to another classic pasta dish? If you were to substitute pecorino for the lemon you'd have spaghetti alla gricia, also known as amatriciana in bianco. It was probably the precursor to amatriciana (before tomatoes became popular in the 19th century).

[Paul]

Thanks Frank - I did not know that, very interesting. I had a quick look at your site, looks good, will go back for more!