Spaghetti Olio

1. Boil water in a larger pot. Once it comes to a boil, add 2 tablespoons salt. Add pasta and follow the cooking instructions provided on the package. Prior to draining pasta, set aside 1 ½ cups of pasta cooking water.
2. Select a utensil that is large enough to fit the pasta. You could take a large, shallow pot or 12 inch sauté pan. Heat olive oil at medium flame.
3. Add thinly sliced garlic cloves and cook for 2 minutes or until they caramelize. Keep stirring the garlic cloves until the edges turn brown. Make sure that you don’t overcook them.
4. Add red pepper flakes and cook for 30 more seconds.
5. Be careful with this step. Add pasta cooking water to garlic and oil and let it boil.
6. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Lower the flame. Simmer for five minutes until the liquid comes to a third.
7. Drain pasta and add it to the garlic sauce. Toss the mixture.
8. Remove the pot from the flame. Sprinkle with Parmesan and parsley and toss gently until the mixture blends properly. Keep pasta away from heat for 5 minutes. Let the sauce mix well.
9. Taste to check seasoning. Serve with Parmesan.

Trivia

The most important step is to let the garlic cloves be golden brown. Under-do it and you wouldn’t get the full flavor. Overdo it and you would get a bitter flavor.

If you want a richer flavor, you could also add a tablespoon of butter while tossing the pasta mixture with parsley and Parmesan.

Garlic and olive oil sauce is the easiest that you could make.