Quick & Easy Pasta with Olive Oil

Working long hours at restaurant makes me not only physically exhausted, but also really hungry late at night after work. This is when I need something hearty and delicious but very simple food.

When you hear 'hearty, delicious, simple', what comes to your mind?
For me, stew, soup, pasta... these are what come to my mind. But although I love stew and soup, they are hard to cook in a short amount of time. So, simple and quick pasta is always my best choice at late night.

Olive oil, garlic, a small chunk of hard cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino, some simple herbs like parsley, and just salt and freshly ground black pepper. That's all you need.

And, most of all, it takes only 15 minutes from start to finish!

Quick & Easy Pasta with Olive Oil
(Yield: 2 servings / Cooking time: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ 120g long thin pasta, such as spaghetti or thin linguine (60g per portion)*
+ 3-4 garlic cloves
+ 15g Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Pecorino)
+ several sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
+ 1.5 Tbsp olive oil
+ salt and pepper

* Since I am making the pasta for a late night meal, I only used 60g per portion. For a regular meal, 85g per portion would be more appropriate.


Procedures:
1. Boil a big pot of water.

2. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the ingredients as follows:
- Garlic cloves: peel and slice very thinly.
- Parmigiano-Reggiano: grind the cheese with grater (such as Microplane) or food processor.
- Parsley: clean and pick the leaves only and chop roughly.

3. As water boils vigorously, add enough salt and start cooking pasta. Taste pasta after 6 minutes and see if it needs more cooking or not. Cook until slightly undercooked ('al dente'). Drain the pasta. Please keep about 1 cup of pasta cooking water for later use.


4. Drizzle 1.5 Tbsp olive oil in the same pan where you cooked the pasta. Please make sure the pot is dry and empty before adding the olive oil - otherwise, the oil will spatter. Add sliced garlics and sweat over medium heat. When the garlic slices are cooked without browning, add pasta to the pan. Coat the pasta with olive oil well, then season with enough freshly ground black pepper. If you think the pasta is too dry, add 2-3 Tbsp of pasta cooking water to the pan.


5. Plate the pasta in a pasta bowl, then sprinkle grated cheese and chopped parsley over it.


Enjoy~