Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
January 12, 2021 | By Jeremy Scheck | 37 Comments
Spaghetti aglio e olio is a very quick dish to make. It is simple, but because it has so few ingredients, you have to pay close attention to the technique so that you don’t mess it up. Adding cheese or lemon juice might seem tempting (and many people do), but it is not traditional or necessary when you strike the right balance of flavors. That said, if you want it, just go for it 🙂
Important Tips
- Try not to burn the garlic! It can happen quickly. One thing we do to prevent the burning is add half of the olive oil later on. Adding some room temperature oil to the oil in the pan lowers the temperature (and also preserves some of the fresh olive oil flavor).
- Only boil the pasta for a few minutes (4-5) in the typical pasta pot, because we want the pasta to cook the rest of the time in the garlic-infused oil (with a few ladles of pasta water).
- The process of cooking the pasta more-so in the saucepan with just ladles of hot, starchy, pasta water (and constant motion) is called risottare, because it resembles how risotto is made. The motion releases starch from the pasta into the sauce, which helps to emulsify the water and oil together.
Video Tutorial
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound spaghetti
- Generous kosher salt for pasta water
- 1/3 cup good extra virgin olive oil
- 3-5 cloves sliced garlic
- 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (or less to taste)
- 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (about 1 cup of leaves not chopped)
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add a very generous amount of kosher salt; at least 3 tablespoons. Drop in the pasta and set a timer for 5 minutes.
- Add half the olive oil to a large cold pan with the garlic and red chili flakes. Heat over a low-medium flame, shaking the pan occasionally. You want the garlic to get a light golden brown color and gentle bubbles in the oil, but not too much.
- When the 5 minutes are up, add the rest of the oil to your garlic and red pepper flakes. Either use tongs to transfer the pasta directly to the pan with the garlic and oil, or save at least 1 cup of pasta water BEFORE draining the spaghetti and adding it.
- Add about 1/4-1/3 cup of pasta water (eyeball it), and mix the spaghetti in the garlic/oil/pasta water mixture energetically. Keep cooking the pasta in the pan 4-5 more minutes (until it is al dente), adding a few more dashes of pasta water if the pan looks dry.
- Add the parsley, mix, and serve.
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.
If I want to double the amount of pasta, do I double all the other ingredients as well?
yes
I just made this and it’s so simple and delicious! Thank you for sharing!
this was amazing
im a horrible cook and this still turned out amazing
5 stars!
Would these noodles be substituted well with rice noodles for people with allergies?
It worked deliciously!
if crack made sweet love to an italian…and made this heavenly dish.
I was too depressed to cook last night and was gonna go to bed hungry, but then I remembered this recipe. Incredible and so so easy. Ty king ????
If I’m using homemade noodles should I boil at all before or add directly into oil mixture with water, since the cook time is so short? Will it have the same effect if I use untreated water, instead of starchy pasta water?
How many servings/Calories ate in this ?
Making this tonight!! Thanks jeremy 🙂
This recipe is amazing!!! I had my doubts because there are so few ingredients, but I was definitely proved wrong with the very first bite. Thank you Jeremy for teaching me to cook!!!
I’m going to try this tomorrow night but with fresh pasta. Would I just add the fresh pasta directly to the pan or would I give it a quick boil first? Or is this a bad idea altogether haha
I am 99% sure this dish is never made with fresh pasta. I would use dried!
Just made this and it’s so good and quick to make, with ingredients that I already had in my kitchen, my family loved it!
really really good 🙂 i added basil just cause i was trying to use some up and it tasted amazing.
Yummy! This will be a go to for me when I need to cook something quick and easy. And because this has only a few ingredients, I will almost always have what’s needed on hand.
Amazing! I know its not traditional but I add parm to this dish and it has quickly become one of my favs
That’s actually a rather common addition, but I’m not sure if that stems from Italy.
I love this recipe! It’s so simple but can be so flavourful. I cheated a bit by adding diced chicken, but this would still be a perfect dish on a simple quick day too.
This tasted amazingggggg. And took me all of 10 min. AND I had leftover to have a great lunch at work the next day.
SO good and easy! I loved this pasta!
absolutely delicious!
I have made this recipe so many times now. It’s so cheap and easy and tastes delicious. The first time I made it I put way too much chilli in it but I still finished every last bite hahaha. You should try this recipe and Jeremy’s other recipes for sure, he’s amazing and the recipes are detailed but easy to follow! Love it!
This is really delicious. I like my food spicy so I double up on the chili flakes and add a wee bit more olive oil and Parmesan. Mmm lovely!
This is literally so easy and so good. I go back to this recipe all the time and it always gets a lot of compliments when I make it for others!! It’s foolproof and seriously the best easy, go-to pasta ever.
This dish is amazing. Last summer I made it like 5 times a week. It’s so easy and delicious.
It tastes so good for something so simple
Here are a few tips though
One, be patient with the garlic. Put the stove on low and wait for 10 min till you see it look lightly golden and then turn off the stove otherwise it will burn and change the taste of the dish(Boil the pasta during this time) Do Not Be Lazy. This step literally is responsible for all the flavour in the dish
Two, do not skip adding the pasta water. I have made it without it and my god the oil didnt become the sauce that you want it to be and it was just a tasteless oily mess. Add the water and keep stirring. I personally keep the flame on low instead of off during this time since I think it helps the sauce form faster
And three, the first time you make it there is a good chance you will use too much oil and there will be a pool of oil at the bottom of your dish. Umm it’s ok you will get better with experience
I have been obsessed with this since I saw this a few months back. I make it at LEAST once a week! Seriously, it’s so simple but so good! I add a lot of garlic, but there’s no such thing as too much garlic lol
How much time would you cook Angel hair pasta before transferring to a pan?
And does the temperature setting change for an electric stove?
Thanks!
I made this and added feta sprinkled on top (don’t read this if you’re Italian) and it was DIVINE!!! Best spaghetti aglio e olio I’ve ever made. And I make this shit a lot bc it’s so simple and easy 😋😋😋 thanks Jeremy!!! The adding oil later part really helps, my aglio always used to burn.
Made this its super easy! Being an Indian, kind of needed a little zing and masala so i added black pepper, a lot of pizza seasoning, more garlic and one spoon of cheese…super delicious!
I loved this! It tasted so good. I make it for my mother and I and she loved it.
pasta tasted great however it took me FOREVER to make lol. I spent more than twenty minutes on the step mixing in the pasta with the chili and garlic because the pasta would not become al dente (just very firm and trust me I love a very al dente pasta!). I think what went wrong is using a smaller pot that took longer for the spaghetti to become emerged in and really start to cook.
Super easy, and it tastes really good!! Will definitely be making this again
Literally the easiest pasta to make. And it’s so delicious. My family won’t eat anything I make but they loved this!