Walter

Timing is critical.

INGREDIENTS:

More garlic (aglio) than you think you need, by a factor of two.

Enough virgin olive oil (olio) to sauteé the garlic in a big frying pan. Don't bother with extra virgin oil, the cooking temperature kills most of the flavor anyway. Save the extra virgin stuff to dip bread into at the table.

Pasta. This recipe works much better with dried pasta than with fresh, sadly.

1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley

1/2 t red pepper flakes

Chop half the parsley. Leave the other half whole as a garnish.

Peel and chop the garlic. Don't squeeze it, just mince it; if you squeeze it, it won't caramelize properly.

Boil the pasta in the usual way (personally, I'm a believer in putting a bit of oil in the water to keep it from foaming up, and I don't salt the water, but your mileage may vary).

Pour some oil into the frying pan and preheat it on medium (don't let it smoke). When exactly seven minutes remain for the pasta, toss the garlic and pepper flakes into the oil and sauteé.

The garlic should take about four or five minutes to turn golden brown. At this point, take about 1/4 cup of water from the still-boiling pasta and throw it into the frying pan, while standing back to avoid being splattered with hot oil. Turn the heat on the garlic down slightly. Throw in 3/4 of the chopped parsley.

Simmer the garlic while the pasta finishes. By the time the pasta is done, the garlic should have just about simmered dry again. Remove the garlic from the heat.

Drain the pasta. Do not rinse it; it needs its coating of starch for the sauce to adhere properly, and besides, if you don't like starch why are you eating pasta? Rinsing is for when you want to make a cold pasta salad and you don't want the pasta to stick together.

Put the pasta back into the pan with the garlic and put it back on medium heat. Throw in the remaining chopped parsley, some salt, some pepper, toss for a few seconds, and serve immediately. Buon gusto.

Bring me back to The Sustar Cookbook.