Pasta with Garlic and Oil

Last weekend I was on a roll. I made a quick and easy dinner of Garlic Spaghetti for Jason and myself, plus some yummy brownie-esque cookies. I'll start with the pasta dish, made possible from an America's Test Kitchen cookbook that I picked up at the thrift store some time ago.


I find when making a simple dish like this- you can adjust the amount of ingredients by just eyeballing and winging it- it's so simple, it can't go wrong- so feel free to adjust to your liking, or by what you have on hand.

Recipe, originally from America's Test Kitchen
1 pound spaghetti
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup minced garlic
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3 tbsp parsley leaves, finely chopped
2 tsp lemon
Parmesan cheese


1. First, make the pasta: boil water and toss in spaghetti noodles, adding salt to flavor the pasta.
2. Make sure to reserve about 1/3 water from pasta water, once the noodles are done cooking.
3. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil and toss in almost all of the garlic. Reserve some garlic to add in later (per the cookbook, gives the dish different depths of garlic flavor)
4. Cook garlic over low heat, stirring frequently for about 10-12 mins.
5. Remove pan from heat and add in remaining garlic, pepper flakes, parsley, lemon juice and 2 tbsp pasta cooking water. Add salt to taste.
6. Toss remaining olive oil and pasta water in with the pasta to coat. Add in garlic mixture and toss.
7. Sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and eat immediately!