Again, not the best presentation. I finally got De Cecco since it's a bit cheaper than La Molisana in Shopee, so here's my progress.
I cooked the spaghetti in al dente for about 10 minutes and while cooking, I prepared for the sauce, basically olive oil, 2 garlic cloves and 1 red pepper. I kinda screwed up the garlic when keeping the stove on low for a few minutes but at least it's golden brown. No parsley added though as I followed this exact recipe here. Gonna sharp the knife a bit more as these peppers in the picture aren't sliced well.
by soleful_smak
7 Comments
I’m sure it’s savory, but that just looks like bland spaghetti.
Needs more starch water, needs more mantecare!
Nope
You need to emulsify the oil. It looks like you simply added the olive oil to the cooked pasta.
Not quite but you’re not far off.
– Firstly, golden “brown” garlic is likely burnt. Any bitterness is undesirable and you’d be best to teeter on the edge of undercooked so as to retain the garlic’s punchy flavour. The heating is simply to infuse the oil with garlic.
– Similarly, you want to use minimal EVOO to cook with, as heating the oil will very quickly destroy its fresh aromas. Instead, manteca the pasta at flameout with “olio abbondante” (a shitload of raw oil) and a touch of starch water to cream it up and retain the spicy EVOO taste.
– The pasta looks overcooked. This may not be the case because I’m only going off a picture, but the way that the spaghetti bend seems too soft for a perfect al dente.
– Slicing the chilli well is not a big deal. This is a cucina povera dish and the rustic cut is almost preferred.
– Following exact recipes is overrated. No one’s nonna makes anything the same as another nonna and the myth that there are hard and fast rules to Italian cooking is mostly perpetuated by 47th generation English-speaking influencer types who want to gatekeep. The fact of the matter is that many nonnas don’t even have names for dishes and they just throw things together in ways that taste good. Throw some parsley in there if you think it needs it.
This must be trolling
De Cecco is significantly less starchy than La Molisana in my experience. So if you want to emulsify the oil, you have to basically boil the pasta in a shallow pan. When the pasta is done cooking, the small amount of unevaporated water leftover will have enough starch to emulsify the oil. Make sure to salt the water less with this method