Pasta Aglio e Olio

Pasta aglio e olio (pasta with garlic and olive oil) is a classic Italian pasta dish. It's a pretty easy vegetarian dish to make, and it's very flavorful.

You might recogize this dish as the one Carl prepares for Molly in the 2014 film Chef. In fact, the official recipe from the movie (https://thechefshow.com/recipes/scarletts-pasta) is largely the one I use. I've just made some slight adjustments to a couple of the amounts after making it a few times, based on my preferences.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 large garlic cloves, sliced into thin slices
• 1/2 to 1 tsp dried red pepper flakes, optional
  • I adjusted this down from the original recipe. I like a little heat in this dish, but I think the original amount is a bit too much and sort of overwhelms the other flavors.
• 1/2 cup parsley, minced
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • Make sure you use real grated Parmesan, preferably grated yourself, and not the dried Parmesan bits in a bottle (like the stuff you'd put on pizza). That stuff has lots of cellulose (plant fiber) to prevent caking, which is really unpleasant when used in recipes like this. (Yes, I made this mistake once when I was first learning to cook)
• Juice of 1/2-1 lemon
  • This is another slight adjustment I made to the recipe. The lemon is definitely helpful for cutting the heaviness of the oil, but I tend not to use the full lemon amount in the original recipe since it can also overwhelm the other flavors.
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cook the spaghetti in salted water until al dente, and drain.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium, until hot.
3. Add the garlic and cook until golden brown, stirring frequently.
4. Add the red pepper flakes and season the oil with salt and pepper.
5. Add the drained pasta into the oil, and toss until the pasta is fully coated with the oil and garlic.
6. Remove from heat. Add in the parsley and Parmesan cheese, and toss until evenly distributed.
7. Squeeze the lemon juice onto the pasta to taste. I usually start with 1/2 lemon, taste, and adjust to 3/4 lemon if necessary.
8. Serve garnished with a bit more Parmesan cheese.