Many years ago, when I was a new mother, my aunt made a priceless heirloom for me. She hand-lettered and painted this rendition of all our family's pasta sauce recipes.
While I know these recipes by heart, I still consult the painting when it's time to cook. It's so beautiful and it so inspires me. The same painting hangs in my aunt's house, in my sister's house, and in my mother's house. (Not sure which one of us has the original.)
My daughter is endeavoring to learn all the recipes this year, working her way through them with a joy that warms my heart.
Fridays are casual meal days here. My husband frequently travels on Fridays, so it's just mom and the kids. Often, Friday's dinner precedes a full slate of weekend athletic competitions and I try to carbo-load my growing athletes. And, Fridays are meatless--they are perfect days for hearty peasant pasta meals.
Tonight's dinner is Pasta with a very simple Agli Olio sauce. That's just pasta with garlic and olive oil. Lots of garlic--another good reason to make it when Daddy's not here. According to my Aunt Lisette, boil enough water for two pounds of pasta and finely chop 15 to 20 cloves of garlic. Saute the garlic in 3/4 cup to 1 cup olive oil until just golden. Be careful not to burn it. Burned garlic is bitter! Let the garlic sit in the oil while you chop a bunch of parsley and grate about a cup or so of Pecorino Romano cheese. When the pasta is al dente (or firm to the tooth), reserve about 2 cups of the pasta water. Add about a cup of the water to the garlic oil. Drain the rest of the water and then sauce the pasta with the garlic oil. Sprinkle generously with cheese and parsley and toss. If it seems to dry, add more pasta water.
Variations: I often stir some arugula or spinach just briefly into the garlic oil and toss that, too, omitting the parsley. Slivered sun dried tomatoes are another great addition. And, you can make this recipe into pasta with white clam sauce by adding chopped fresh clams in juice or canned clams with all the juice and cutting back on the pasta water.
Wheat free note: Ever since I discovered Tinkyada Rice Pasta, I haven't been deprived of favorite pasta dishes. It's almost as good as dried semolina pasta.
This sounds awesome and how yimely considering my new topic at 4real ! We love this style of pasta and have also done it with anchovies melted in the oil and garlic, very yummy!! Thanks for sharing it! And the painting of suaces is sooo cool!! Mangia, mangia!
Posted by: Meredith | April 21, 2006 at 05:22 PM
What a treasured heirloom your aunt's painting must be! Family recipes are my favorites. We are definitely trying the garlic pasta this weekend!
Posted by: Dawn | April 21, 2006 at 05:36 PM
Thanks for the great recipe. What a beautiful keepsake you aunt made for you. I really love that idea!
Posted by: Rebecca | April 22, 2006 at 08:09 PM
Elizabeth, I made this for dinner last night and it was SOOOO good. I added shrimp at the last minute to the oil and garlic mixture. My husband loved it and so did I. Thanks so much!
Posted by: Rebecca | April 26, 2006 at 12:21 PM
Hi! I have order from this place all the time and am very pleased to share. They have great kosher organic and natural food products including tinkyada pasta.
Here is a link http://www.wholeandnatural.com
Enjoy!!!
p.s. I used a code try if it works for you bldc08
Posted by: sandy winz | March 27, 2008 at 12:31 AM