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I've been thinking about my old roommate Bird, and how, in our many cooking adventures, I never got to expose her to anchovies. I proposed an anchovy dish at some point, and while she was freaked out by the thought (she made a face), she was hesitantly willing to try them. But alas, we never got around to it.

To wit: a recipe, at long last. I haven't posted one in a long time.

Preston's Pasta with garlic and oil (for 2-3 people)

Garlic and oil (aglio e olio) is a supremely flexible recipe. This is my favorite variation.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. spaghetti
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 8 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and whole
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest
• 2-3 anchovies
• crushed red pepper, to taste
• as many pine nuts as suits your fancy
• 1/8-1/4 cup Italian (flat leaf) parsley

Prep

1. It's important not to crush, chop or cut the garlic cloves in any way when you peel them. When a garlic clove is damaged, a chemical reaction occurs that gives it the intense acrid/spicy flavor we usually associate with garlic; the goal here is to produce a dish that has a nutty, savory flavor similar to roasted garlic.
2. Water is the enemy of this dish – it's best if everything is as dry as possible, or else the oil won't cling to the pasta. With that in mind, it's not a bad idea to make the pasta ahead of time and let it drain for awhile (this isn't absolutely necessary, though).
3. Chop the parsley and omit stems.
4. Wash the anchovies (to reduce salt content) and chop them.
5. Toast pine nuts. (We used to use a toaster oven – be sure to keep an eye on them, as they'll toast/burn quickly.)

And onward …

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat and add garlic cloves, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides.
2. Remove pan from heat and carefully mash garlic cloves with a fork. (If you can't do this quicky or the hot oil seems to dangerous to muck around in, remove the garlic from the oil and mash it in a cutting board, then stir it back in.) This causes the oils from the garlic to infuse the olive oil in the pan. (Aside: I'm pretty sure that, at this point, if you left the garlic in the oil for a couple of hours, it would be crazy-garlicky. Haven't tried it, though.)
3. Quickly add the anchovies, stirring until they dissolve.
4. Return pan to heat, and add crushed red pepper and lemon zest. Cook over medium/high heat for about a minute, stirring frequently.
5. Stand back a little, and toss parsley into the pan. The pan should be hot enough to make the parsley crackle (and potentially cause a splatter). That's a good sign – that crackling is water being driven from the pan. Cook for 1-2 more minutes.
6. Remove from heat and stir in pine nuts.
7. Toss with dry pasta to coat thoroughly.

It's generally considered a mortal sin to add Parmesan to this dish, but I confess, I'm a sinner. I think it's better with Parmesan, but that's me.

Notes about this dish: I think it's best when the dish is very garlicky, with the lovely toasty/green flavor of the pine nuts and parsley. The hint of citrus from the lemon zest and slight bite from the red pepper complement the savoriness of the anchovies. Ideally, the flavors should balance out nicely. For all the complexity of flavor, it's a remarkably cheap and easy dish to make.

The garlic infusion thing is a neat trick. You can also just mince the garlic, but Bird and I will both tell you that it's better with the infusion. Be careful not to burn the garlic, especially after you mash it. Ideally, when the dish is done, the visible interior of the garlic cloves should still be pale or white. Also, adding a dash of salt brings out the garlickyness of this dish (though the anchovies will make it pretty salty already).

Corrections tips: when the sauce is finished, if the anchovy taste is too strong, add a splash of lemon juice. If it's not strong enough, add a little more anchovy or a dash of salt. If the parsley taste is too strong, adding more pine nuts sometimes helps. If it's too spicy, well, you're screwed. If the garlic taste is too strong, this dish isn't for you.

And as I said, this is a supremely flexible dish. Try using toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts (yum). Try omitting the anchovy and adding a small sprig of rosemary after you mash the garlic (fish it out before you toss it with the pasta). Also, if you omit the anchovy and substitute cilantro for parsley, lime for lemon, and crushed chipotle for the red pepper, and stir in a dollop of honey, you get something deliciously southwesterny.

You can use this sauce as a flavored oil for fried rice or vegetables. It's yummy that way. I've also used 2 parts of this sauce, 1 part vinegar and 1 part water to marinate chicken, and it's good. A simple but delicious dish involves using this sauce to saute chicken, then drizzling the chicken with pan drippings and topping it with chopped green olives and capers.

This entry was posted Sunday, April 23rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm and is filed under recipes. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.