Aglio e olio is perhaps the most pared-down of all pasta dishes – literally “garlic and oil.” Traditionally it’s a rustic midnight meal, thrown together in minutes when the pantry is nearly bare: spaghetti, a splash of olive oil, garlic and a little chili. But precisely because the dish has so few ingredients, every detail matters. There’s nowhere to hide – and that’s why aglio e olio is at once one of the easiest and one of the hardest pasta dishes to make really well.
This version takes the classic one step further, toward something you might expect to find in a fine-dining restaurant. The secret lies in two things: how we treat the garlic, and how we build the sauce. Instead of frying the garlic hard in oil – where it easily turns bitter and sharp – we blanch the cloves in several short batches. This coaxes out the garlic’s natural sweetness and removes the raw heat, giving a rounder, more elegant flavour.
The garlic is then blended with olive oil, pasta water, parmesan and a pinch of lemon zest into a smooth, creamy sauce that wraps around each strand of spaghetti like a velvet film. Don’t underestimate the pasta water – the starch in it binds the oil and cheese into an emulsion instead of letting the fat split. It’s the same principle behind a perfect cacio e pepe or carbonara.
The result is a pasta dish that feels indulgent even though the ingredient list is still short and inexpensive. Serve it as an elegant starter at a special dinner, or as a main course with a glass of dry white wine. An extra grating of parmesan and some fresh parsley on top – and you’re done.
If you’d like to try the simpler, more rustic version, you’ll find that recipe here.
4 servings
Ingredients
500 g spaghetti
2 dl olive oil
2 whole heads of garlic
2 dl pasta water
2 tsp salt
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 bunch of fresh parsley
1 pinch grated lemon peel
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Instruction:
- Peel and clean all garlic cloves.
- Grate the cheese.
- Chop the parsley leaves.
- Grate the lemon peel.
- Boil the garlic cloves in water for 1 minute. Then pick them up and rest them for 1 minute.
- Repeat this three more times, so that they are cooked in total for four minutes.
- Boil the pasta water, and reuse the garlic water in that saucepan.
- When the pasta has cooked for 5-6 minutes, spoon out 2 dl of pasta water.
- Mix the pasta water, oil, garlic, lemon zest, salt and a little of the cheese to a smooth sauce.
- Drain the pasta when it is ready and pour back into a pot. Mix with the garlic sauce and also mix in the rest of the cheese and parsley.
- Serve and sprinkle with some cayenne pepper.
Goes with:
A red Italian wine, for example a Valpolicella Ripasso.
Aglio e Olio Michelin Class
Ingredients
Method
- Separate and peel all the garlic cloves.2 whole heads of garlic
- Grate the cheese.2 dl grated parmesan
- Rinse and chop the parsley.1 bunch fresh parsley
- Grate the lemon zest.1 pinch lemon zest
- Boil the garlic cloves in water for one minute, then lift them out and rest them for 1 minute.2 whole heads of garlic
- Repeat this three more times, so the garlic is boiled for four minutes in total.2 whole heads of garlic
- Bring salted pasta water to a boil, reusing the water the garlic was cooked in.2 dl pasta water
- When the pasta has cooked for about 5–6 minutes, scoop out 2 dl of pasta water.2 dl pasta water, 500 g spaghetti
- In a food processor, or a tall jug with a hand blender, blend the pasta water, olive oil, garlic, lemon zest, salt and a little of the grated cheese into a smooth sauce.2 dl olive oil, 2 whole heads of garlic, 2 dl pasta water, 1 pinch lemon zest, 2 tdp salt
- Drain the cooked pasta and pour the garlic cream over it. Mix in the rest of the cheese and the parsley.500 g spaghetti, 2 dl grated parmesan, 1 bunch fresh parsley
- Serve and top with a little cayenne pepper.1 pinch cayenne pepper