Cooking with Blobby

It seems like it's been awhile since I had a cooking segment. I look for inspiration for dinner, but haven't really tried much new. But as I built stuff up over the years with this series, I've added to our regular things, so we have a decent variety. 

Pasta - I try and I usually don't retry. Not all are one-and-done, but it's usually nothing I have to have. 

I have found in the last two years or so, red sauces don't really speak to me. It's not acid reflux or anything, I just usually find them heavy. 

So today, I'm using a highly simple recipe I got from Milk Street - though honestly, it's almost the basic of basic things for Italian cooking - classic pasta aglio e olio, or pasta with garlic and oil.  Really, so few ingredients, you taste them all as a collective and yet individually. 

Ingredients

Spaghetti - 1 pound 

Olive Oil  - 1/3  cup 

Garlic  - 4 medium cloves, thinly sliced

Red Pepper flakes - 1/2 tsp. (forgot to put in the picture)

Grape tomatoes - 1 pint (sliced in halves)

Basil - 1/2 cup

Parmesan - shaves and / or grated

That's it! Well salt and pepper. Duh.  

The process takes almost not time at all. You can slice the garlic and tomatoes while the water boils. As there is only two of us, I did cut the recipe (above) in half.  Except for the garlic. I left the full amount in there, because......well........garlic!  And the basil. 

Thinly slice the garlic. 

They cook well and are sweeter to eat in the pasta. 

Half the cherry tomatoes. 

Clearly home-grown or farmer's market would be better, but these came from the grocery store. It was fine. 

Cook pasta al dente.  

Honestly, has any recipe on any cooking show EVER told you to cook to the full time?  No. No they haven't. So why not just change the directions on the box? 

Drain the pasta and leave it in the strainer .

In the same pot you cooked the pasta, add the oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. 

Cook for 2 minutes (or so) until garlic starts to golden brown. 

Add pasta, tomatoes, 1/4 tsb salt (remember, this recipe is halved) and 1/4 tsb of black pepper. 

Shave or grate (or both) parmesan and add chopped basil. 

Try not to semi-burn the garlic breadstick. 

We added a decent Shiraz too. 

Honestly, the flavors were great. Clean, tasty, filling but not feeling "full".  This is one that stays. It takes no time at all and totally worth it.  And one pot!