Secret to spaghetti with garlic and oil?

Question

What do restaurants do to make this so delicious? I have an old Hazan cookbook that calls for chopping garlic and simmering it in the olive oil, but not letting it brown. (At this point, I'm going on memory.) There's parsley in there too. I've always made it this way, but it's not as good as I've had it in some restaurants, where the garlic flavor really blossoms...and sometimes it's sliced, not chopped.

Any advice? Thanks.

Answer

I like to add the oil and garlic slices to a cold pan so that the garlic has time to infuse while it heats up. Add peperoncino when garlic starts to brown.
Don't forget to save some of the pasta water. If in the end the pasta is too dry, add water rather than oil to moisten it.

Answer

This is how I make Aglio Olio, my son's favorite dish.

First, chop up a good amount of garlic. I like to chop mine finely, and for two servings I would say about three cloves. We like that garlic taste!

Put your water on to boil. Meanwhile, put some quality olive oil in a fry or saute pan that is large enough to hold the pasta you are cooking. Add the garlic, coarse salt and as much or as little red pepper flakes as you would like. Let the garlic ALMOST begin to color and remove the pan to another, cold place. When the spaghetti is nearly done -- and I mean very al dente -- put the pan with the garlic on a high heat and add the pasta along with a fair amount of the pasta cooking water. Stir constantly until the spaghetti reaches a proper al dente consistency. Turn off the heat, add some chopped parsley if you like, and pass cheese if you like. We never have cheese with this, but some people like it. If you would like an even more assertive garlic taste, you can begin by lightly browning (and I do mean lightly -- almost no color) a couple of crush garlic cloves and removing them before adding the chopped garlic, salt and pepper flakes.

Answer

The finer you chop the garlic, the stronger the garlic flavor. Since this is a dish about garlic, mince it to a paste (chop it with kosher salt and drag the blade across it a few times) or run it through a garlic press for maximum garlic flavor. I cook most of the garlic in the olive oil until it's golden, about the color of straw. Cook a dash of red peper flakes with it at the same time for extra zing. Since sautéeing mellows the garlic, I keep a little bit of the minced garlic out of the sauté and toss it into the pasta raw.

Answer

It took me a long time to get it right, here is what I do: 8 whole cloves of garlic into a cup of decent oil but not necessarily xv (I'm seeing I wrote Progresso oil on the recipe but had to cross it out, wish it was still around!), saute til tan not brown, remove cloves and add some fresh parsley (and I add 2 anchovies too, then cook till they dissolve, a minute or two). Meanwhile I have my pasta water going and I add a dipperful into the oil. Yes it will splatter a bit so have a screen ready to cover at first. That's really it, I serve red pepper and parm at the table, and in laws also must have toasted bread crumbs to top.

Answer

Fried garlic tastes better when it definitely has some color. Not pale straw, but golden in the middle and brown-ish along the edges. Not burnt black. Brown. Use as much as You like.
Anchovies enhance the flavor of the garlic. 
Chopped parsley does nothing for this very simple dish.
Crushed red pepper flakes can be added at the beginning of the garlic frying stage - or - at the end - or - on top of the pile of pasta on the plate and mixed in as you eat. 
No cheese. 
It's all about the garlic and the oil.

Answer

I'm not an expert, but I make this dish quite often and use only EVOO, garlic (lots and lots) and of course spaghetti.

After reading the posts, I'm now wondering if anchovies are traditionally part of the prep for Aglio e Olio?

Answer

I'll take a guess and say restaurants are probably using more oil and salt than you. They care about repeat business, not your health. NTTAWWT.

Answer

I order this at a restaurant nearby. I've tried cooking it countless times, following every sort of tip and recipe I could find on the internet, and it never comes anywhere close to how it tastes in the restaurant. 
What I notice about how it tastes in the restaurant is that the garlic even tastes a bit different, like a sweet and almost roasted flavor. Mine always comes out tasting a bit bitter. One of the biggest issues I've had as well is making the oil itself actually TASTE like the garlic! I've tried slow cooking it, using a ridiculous amount of garlic, and many other things, but it usually ends up tasting like olive oil with a hint of garlic flavor. In the restaurant, the oil tastes very strongly of that rich garlic (almost roasted) flavor. 

If anyone has any tips, they would be appreciated.

Answer

It's not the traditional recipe but I like Matha Stewart's Three Garlic Pasta Recipe. The three types of Garlic being Roasted, Toasted (slices fried in oil until golden) and Chopped (sauteed in oil).

http://www.food.com/recipe/three-garlic-pasta-188993

Answer

I agree with a lot of the comments here.

The way I prepare it:

Pour a generous amount of olive oil in a pan and drop in about 4-5 large cloves of garlic that have been crushed, not chopped or sliced, just barely split open. Let the oil heat up with the garlic in it. It'll help infuse the garlic essence into the oil. When the garlic is soft and begins to get golden, remove them from the oil and toss in a fresh hot chile or a good pinch of dried/crushed chile and a couple spoons of the hot boiling, heavily salted pasta water (I put close to a cup of salt in...cause if you can't taste it, you didn't put enough!). Let the water simmer a bit and reduce a bit which adds more saltiness to the dish. Toss in your spaghetti wet, and finish with some fresh chopped parsley, stir it up, remove from heat, and then drizzle a little raw olive oil over it.

Answer

I have this tiny garlic mandoline which allows me to thinly slice the garlic--think razor blade in Good Fellas--and I use half a dozen cloves for two. It gets sauteed slowly until golden at which point the pasta should be ready to throw in. Add other things as is your preference. Those slices of garlic will be nutty and almost dissolve. Lovely

Answer

I think the keys are:

1) Use lots of olive oil.
2) Use lots of garlic. You can slice thinly; you can mince; you can crush. It all works. I usually chop finely, not quite to a mince.
3) Sautee the garlic slowly. One of the most important things I've learned from Marcella Hazan is to put oil and garlic into a cold pan and bring them up to heat together. The pan should be just hot enough so that the garlic audibly sautes. Saute slowly until deep golden but not brown. I usually saute some crumbled dried red pepper along with the garlic.
4) Throw in finely chopped parsley at the end.
5) Salt!

Answer

You need a little raw minced garlic toward the end to amp up the garlic flavor.

Answer

Throwing in half of a tablespoon of butter when you are finishing the dish in the skillet helps I find.


I also like to throw in some basil while I am infusing the OO with with garlic and then strain it out, but that definitely changes the dish some.

Answer

What a marvelous thread.

I just wanted to second the addition of pasta water if the pasta is too dry at the end. It's easy to think you should just keep adding oil, but that makes the pasta greasy and does not thicken as well. Adding pasta water makes ALL pasta recipes better.

Answer

love all the suggestions. alla olio is DS' fave. 

I can only add, pasta cooking water ~~ I throw in a palmful of coarse kosher salt and every time I do I hear Rachel Ray saying " it is your only chance to salt the pasta"

I also add a couple of cloves of garlic to the pasta water when I add the pasta.

I mix in tiny petite peas at the end and serve the dish at room temp for al fresco meals in the park or at a bbq. People choose it over mac or potato salad every time.

Answer

I'm sure I'll get crucified for asking this, but do you think this would still work with whole wheat pasta?

Answer

Toast bread crumbs. Add to final pasta. +100 points

Answer

Do you want to know a secret? Restaurant food is extremely high in calories. This is because they add butter to everything. They're steaks are much better than the steaks you make at home because they butter the steak before sending it out. The same is true of their aglio olio. Try using equal parts olive oil and butter. The results are very high in calories, but totally awesome

Answer

What nobody has mentioned is that the spaghetti should be quite al dente. The garlic should not color beyond pale gold or at all, if sliced. I would never chop -- it can go from raw to overcooked in nanoseconds. Either slice and watch like a hawk or crush a clove or two of garlic and heat it in the oil till gold, then discard. Peperoncino is considered essential, so heat a piece of chile along with the garlic and discard. If you use pepper flakes, add them at the end or they will overcook (same principle as the chopped garlic). Use about half a cup of intensely fruity extra virgin olive oil for a pound of pasta and mix the spaghetti with the oil either in the skillet or in a heated serving bowl. Sprinkle, if you like, with chopped flat-leafed parsley. Restaurants surely do something else, you're right.
www.maureenbfant.com

Answer

My Sicilian born Grandmother always toasted ( not light but a dark brown) the garlic in the oil in never burnt and would serve with Modiga as well as with the second choice Romano.It was my father's comfort dish bar none.

Answer

For me thinly sliced (not chopped) garlic is the key. I have one of those little Italian garlic slicers and it shaves it nice and thin. I put it in the oil, heat for a moment and then turn it off and let sit -- the garlic becomes slightly golden. I turn it back on just as I add the "wet" pasta and toss it for a minute with lots of black pepper and a little more olive oil.

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Secret to spaghetti with garlic and oil?

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