Ok, this might be the most unhelpful recipe I give you in terms of explaining the measurements. But, that is how years of food entertainment and educational shows have traditionally used these redundant terms, ‘splash of oil’, ‘pinch of salt’, ‘generous grati-GENEROUS GRATING’; how do they know how miserable I am to say that I should do a ‘GENEROUS’ grating of something? The thing is, sometimes some dishes are made based on intuition and feel. So, you have to trust your gut feel……which will develop only after failing many times. Anyways, I will try my best in explaining this. Only tip I have in this recipe is ‘generously’ season your water for boiling pasta and later use a ‘generous’ portion of it while making the sauce. The starch in the pasta water will bring the sauce together. And also, don’t just buy any store-bought pasta sauce. You don’t have to buy one that is ‘generously’ priced, but something that is from a good brand. Here’s the recipe!
Ingredients
- 50 gms of Spaghetti (for one portion)
- 7-8 cloves of thinly sliced Garlic
- A ‘generous’ splash of Olive oil
- A sprinkling of Chilli Flakes
- A dash of mixed Dried Herbs
- A pinch of Sugar
- Half a cup of Tomato Pasta Sauce
- 2 tbsp of Fresh Cream
- 1 tbsp of Butter
- Chopped Coriander or Parsley for garnish
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Parmesan cheese (Optional)
Procedure
- Boil water in a saucepan for your Spaghetti; enough so that it is fully submerged and has room to boil. Add a generous sprinkling of Salt (Spaghetti takes around 7-8 mins to cook. Set a timer if you wanna be adventurous.
- In a frying pan, add some olive oil and add the sliced garlic. The oil should be hot enough that you hear a sizzling sound, but not too hot that you see smoke.
- Once the garlic starts to turn slightly brown, add the chilli flakes, dried herbs, and the pasta sauce. Fry it in the flavoured oil for at least 10 seconds, but not too much that it becomes thick.
- Add a pinch of sugar, and mix well.
- Take the pan off the heat. Let the heat subside if it’s too hot and add the cream. This step ensures that the cream doesn’t split as soon as it touches the hot pan. Mix until the sauce is uniform.
- Once the spaghetti is cooked (you can check by eating one Spaghetto), RESERVE A CUP OF PASTA WATER! Do not forget this step. Drain the spaghetti.
- Add the spaghetti to the sauce and a little bit of the pasta water. You can always add more. Keep mixing and checking to see the consistency. If you add too much water to the sauce, you can put it back on low heat and keep mixing until everything comes together.
- Add a tablespoon of butter, chopped coriander/parsley. Plate the pasta and garnish with more herbs, black pepper, and parmesan cheese (optional).