Quick and Dirty Spaghetti Recipe

Amen - but the talk was of quick and dirty, I believe.

ROASTED garlic, and ROASTED tomatoes - and some roasted red capsicum - in such sauces adds a wonderful flavour....or a richer flavour can be imparted quickly by adding some semi-dried tomatoes.

It all depends on whether you are using fresh or dried herbs. Dried can hold out over a long simmering, providing what you might want to call "bass notes" of flavour. Combine that with adding some fresh herbs of the same variety about five minutes before the sauce is done, those will reinforce the flavour profile, and provide the "treble". Then, you have harmony.

Kalamata olives.
Very strong flavor. Try one first... but it sounds like they belong in that sauce.

Quick Q; Why the F do you need Worchestershire sauce and F'n cinnamon to make a decent Bolognese???

And NO, I didn't read the whole thread before I wrote this.

Crazy.

Technically, Craven's recipe is sort of a cross between a Bolognese and a Puttanesca, with some 'continental' influence. There is actually some potential to take it in different directions. Moroccan and Mexican come to mind...must sleep soon though. Quick thoughts re: Moroccan, add some preserved lemon (not the same as dried lemon), and pop in a bit of cumin, turmeric, saffron, cayenne, or that pepper oil, a touch of powdered ginger, and about five minutes before it's done, throw in a handful of chopped fresh coriander and parsley, in equal proportions. For a change, serve it over large grain couscous instead of spaghetti.

Speaking of pasta: It's basil season in Oz! Yay, heaven!

Hey, it doesn't take long to smash a few healthy garlic cloves & cook them, Deb. They're pretty dirty, too, in my book!

My take is take a few of those minutes and saute the onions to translucent separately. It doesn't take that long and is worth it to me.

Diff flavor from the random cooked onion in bubbling sauce.

The quickest & the dirtiest! Good old Aglio e Olio!

Spicy Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
(spicy spaghetti with garlic and olive oil)


Preparation time: about 15 minutes

Servings: About 4

Ingredients:

1 lb spaghetti or spaghettini
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 TB minced garlic
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
salt
optional: grated pecorino cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta until al dente.

Heat oil over medium in a small saucepan. Add garlic and red pepper and sautee just until garlic begins to color.

Remove from heat. Add parsley.

Mix sauce and pasta in a large bowl. Add salt and cheese to taste.

Sensational! But not for every day, obviously! I have been known to use more garlic than in this recipe.

Why not for every day?

It's the same idea, you saute the garlic or the onions first, it's worth it.

Well, osso, all that oil & the constant reeking of garlic! But I just LOVE the stuff! In my opinion, the drug of the pasta world!

Oil, just a dab'll do ya, msolga, and garlic is only good. Tis evil in the rooms of non-garlic eaters, like Walter.

No, not Our Walter, but my business partner's husband, who when I was staying over at their house for a couple of week's opened all the windows and doors when I cooked. And swept under my feet.

With something like two cloves, max, and usually less. Well, poor guy, he was born in Austria and raised in Amsterdam. I drove him crazy and was soon out of there.

I guess I should mention that garlic behaves differently in certain circumstances. I gather the way to make it most mellow it to put it as cloves into a simmering pot, over hours.

Most in your face, is of course, raw chopped garlic. And there are various inbetweens. So, number of cloves isn't so much the difference, as is the way of cooking.

Oh, poor Walter! He didn't know what he was missing! Life without garlic is like .... I don't know, something VERY deprived! Tragic!

Well, he doesn't taste food much. Instead of mocking him, I can understand, as I have little sense of smell. (me, I seem to compensate on the taste bits). In any case, Walter, my business partner's husband, is quite sensitive generally, and, hey, a music lover... he does some of the local npr broadcasts re jazz and classical music.

But, I still am left being garlic queen.

I'm sure you don't mean to denigrate him, osso. But a life without garlic! Tragic!

Yes, and mine myself was not worth living, perhaps, until I cottoned on to it...



snicker...


still, garlic fills out your shoulders.

It gives you strength to carry on! Do you think it could be a drug, osso? :wink:

No, msolga. We see bottles of pickled garlic and various artifactual garlic products...

still, it isn't the same thing as real garlic just sitting there, being garlic in its garlicness.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a shill for, thinking the garlic place in CA, down by Hollister.

silly, as I have painted a painting from a photo of the guy in the antique shop across from the garlic store.

Aha, that's it, finally I remember, it's Gilroy.

So, surely I am not a shill for Gilroy since I couldn't remember the name of the town.

Ah, well, Gilroy is becoming a developed bedroom community as we speak.

Msolga wrote: "Sensational! But not for every day, obviously! I have been known to use more garlic than in this recipe."


Yes - it is cruel how the need to interact with other human beings intrudes upon one's enjoyment of garlic!

When I was a weelowan, garlic was unknown in the homes of Anglos such as my family.

Then - its use became permissible - in that it was acceptable to cut a clove in half, and rub a weeny bit of it around the salad bowl. It was then thrown away. Garlic - and oil - were for "New Australians".

In fact, my mother, when my father absented himself on business, WAS an adventurous cook - and such wonders as spaghetti bolognese (WITH GARLIC!!!!) would appear on our plates at such times. When he returned, lamb chops, roasts and three veg would reappear with monotonous regularity - though she did not, as was the Anglo Oz habit at the time, boil the veggies until they gave up all attempts to maintain structural integrity.

Then - just as garlic was putting its li'l tippy-toes under the door of our home, there was The Terrible Incident of Uncle Murray And The Garlic!!!!

One of my mum's friends, known by the courtesy title of Auntie Vicky, decided to be daring, and Put Garlic In The Sauce.

Something very odd about her husband's metabolism meant that it sort of reproduced inside his body, in the oddest way, and poor Uncle Murray REEKED of, EXUDED, BREATHED, SWEATED and was generally surrounded by a miasma of, garlic for a week or more! This in a frigid little Anglo world of no garlic - and, poor man, he was a car salesman! Nearly lost his job!

The men were terrified. The frightening little bulbs were banned.