Pasta with Garlic and Oil: Recipe

So you have nothing in the house to eat, you say? Nonsense! You can make the tastiest dishes with just simple ingredients. I am a stickler for having lots of ingredients in the house to draw upon at a moment's notice. Think about it...anytime you go to the grocery store, pick up an extra can of chicken broth, or a jar of sundried tomatoes in oil, or a new dried herb that you never had before. I promise, the more you become familiar with strange items, the more fun cooking and eating will become! I have included a laundry list of what I consider to be rather important things to have on hand - see it below under "Stock the Shelves." If you can pick up an item or two each time you go to the store, you will soon have a rich array of items and as I've said before - you will no longer curse a recipe.

In the meantime, enjoy a very simple dish with very simple ingredients that I would be willing to bet almost every household has around. Pasta, oil, garlic, parsley and cheese. Provided you don't scorch the garlic, I'd say this is a fantastic meal and can be served with so many kinds of pasta shapes. Linguine does tend to be a favorite for this dish. But no matter what...you can improvise just a little.


Pasta with Garlic and Oil

Peel about 8-10 cloves of garlic and wash a large handful of parsley. Put all in Cuisinart and pulse till finely chopped. Put up water for pasta - high heat (cover to boil quickly). Once the pasta goes into the water add a good sized pinch of Kosher salt and in a med-large saucepan warm about 1/3 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on med. heat. Add garlic mixture and saute till fragrant - do not burn; YUCK (you may need to lower temp. watch closely). This should take about 2-3 minutes.

Drain pasta and return pasta to its pot. Pour sauce onto pasta, toss, and add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Uncomplicated and delicious.

You could add any of these if you have them: cherry or grape tomatoes, pitted Kalamata olives, capers in water (don't add the water), white wine or vermouth (but boil these for a minute or two), or sundried tomatoes in either oil or not.