Pasta Aglio Olio

I have learned to live with the fact that Rap will not eat any tomato-based dish. Before, he disliked pasta, too. He thought that pasta is synonymous to our usual Pinoy, tomato-ketchup sauced spaghetti. It was only last year that he started to eating the only pasta dish in his limited food list, Aglio Oglio.

Pasta Aglio Olio (or Aglio e Olio) is a simple pasta dish that even your husband or older kids can make. All you’ll need are sliced garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and cooked pasta (I prefer using spaghetti).

For plain aglio olio, you’ll just need to sauté the sliced garlic cloves in extra-virgin olive oil. Since my version has bacon slices, I first cook the bacon until they’re all crisp before sautéing the garlic slices.

Don’t brown the cloves, but just wait until it becomes a bit transparent. Usually, I use a whole head of garlic for 250 grams of spaghetti noodles. I use no other herb here (except for the parsley for color) so I make it garlicky.

Once the garlic slices are ready, toss in the cooked noodles and season with salt, ground white pepper, and parmesan according to taste. You might also need to add more olive oil to cover the pasta.

Then, sprinkkle the lot with chopped parsley and some red pepper flakes before serving. Be careful on the pepper flakes especially if the people who’ll be eating your pasta aren’t fans of chili.

Aside from bacon, you can also use sliced sausages, ham (not the sweet kind), shrimp, and tuna flakes. You can also pair this pasta with steak or grilled meat or fish.

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