There are many ways to do it. All different, all valid. A few things to remember is to NEVER SERVE raw garlic and oil. The oil that comes out of garlic is like poison to the system and makes it difficult to taste anything else in the dish. Garlic is known as an “antibiotic”. It’s so strong that it kills cells just like one. This has it’s uses in medicine but not food. There is not a single authentic Italian dish that I have ever come across that calls for raw garlic. The Italians laugh at us when we do it. It’s horrible.
So, back to garlic and oil. There are many choices here as far as oil goes and lets discuss that first and foremost. EVOO is the most common but misunderstood. Now we have discussed this before and I urge you to look back and see. EVOO’s have low melting points so they are not always the best choice. I like using lower quality kinds for garlic & oil though because I love the fruitiness. Under NO circumstances should you use a high quality. Grape seed oil is another excellent choice, it has a super high melting point and works well for greens and other bitter or stronger flavored vegetable, meat and fish dishes. A regular, or not extra virgin, olive oil also works very well and tend to be reasonably priced. I use “Fellipo Berio” brand and have for 40+ years.
Here are some tips on handling the garlic: 1. Smashing it. Put the garlic under the blade of a wide knife like a cleaver and SMASH knife down on the clove with your fist. This releases all oil from clove. Now try to imagine the clove for what it really is, a densely structured fruit loaded with oil. Once this oil is released the garlic becomes more friendly to use and also is how we prepare garlic for use on our line in most of our dishes. Because when garlic hits the oil it can be fully cooked much quicker and depending on how long you fry it can be done toasted or left blonde. You can even boil smashed garlic and throw it in your salad dressings (like Caesar) that call for raw garlic (which for me is just insanely wrong.) Smashed Garlic and Oil: In a pan add your oil and garlic and turn the heat on low when garlic starts to boil in the oil. You must watch it very closely.
Now at this point you need to make some choices: Are you looking for a “toasty” garlic flavor or a soft garlic flavor? What are you serving it with?
For traditional Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, you need a lil’ toast. Just a tiny bit once this is achieved you need to “cease” the garlic. There are a few ways: Best way to “cease” the garlic is to use the salted pasta water that is cooking your spaghetti. BE CAREFUL. If your oil is too hot you will splatter all over! This is why you need to use LOW HEAT and bring the garlic up slowly, then pull it OFF the flame and add twice as much water as oil to the pan. The water will immediately boil. Simmer this mix until it has reduced by half and you have equal parts oil and liquid. Your sauce is now ready! On the side roughly chop just the leaves from Italian parsley and when your pasta is a perfect al dente, add it to your pan with sauce and toss with parsley. If you’re a purist, you can stop here, eat and call it a day. If not you could also added pepperoncino to the oil with the garlic and made Aglio e olio e pepperoncino.
Now here is where everybody starts getting upset. Do I add cheese to this dish or not? Well I’ll tell ya and my grandson is gonna kill me but I like it! Sometimes I go pure but sometimes I want cheese! What’s the big deal? Please don’t be mean to an old woman and tell her she can’t have her cheese! Now What cheese, you ask? For me this is a Southern Italian dish and Pecorino from Puglia or Sicily is proper but Parmigiano works well also. Now in the old days during the depression we did something that is another GREAT option for this dish: seasoned toasted breadcrumbs! No one could afford cheese. Hell, we couldn’t even afford bread at times. We used EVERYTHING back then and I still do now.
Heres how: Seasoned breadcrumbs as a topping for pasta are super easy and sometimes, for me, more appropriate than cheese. Take your old stale bread and chop it up. Put it into a bowl, add olive oil, Sicilian dried oregano, pepperoncino, an abundance of sea salt and parsley. Then turn it out onto a sheet pan and put it in a 325 degree oven, shaking and mixing every few minutes until you have reached desired toasty-ness. They are now done, sprinkle at will!
This same recipe is great for baked clams and “raconate” which is Pugliese dialect (My husband Carlo was from Foggia, Puglia) for oreganata. Carlo has passed away, God rest his soul and God knows he loved raconate! We would sprinkle it over garden vegetables and bake them and just cry like babies. SO GOOD! Or on calamari baked quickly with a ribbon of EVOO and parsley, or with filet of sole baked with some wine, or even on seppia (cuttlefish.) Ahhh, Puglia! The crudo we would eat on the beach, the ricci di mare (seaurchin) he would dive for and then eat raw with lemon, the cozze (mussels,) sweet and salty, that he would take right off rocks near the beach raw and feed to me while serenading me. My God! I miss him! The Spaghetti Ricci he would make! Carlo my love, I will join you soon, but first I need to teach Twitter the things we learned and lived together. These things must live on so we can!