Aglio e Olio (Aglio Olio)

Spaghetti aglio olio is one of the most popular Italian dishes amongst people of all age groups. This savoury is a combination of flavours from roasted garlic infused in olive oil, loaded with cheese and Italian parsley. We love to add zucchini and mushrooms to make it healthier. But do you know what, this feast can be prepared with the minimal ingredients from the kitchen in less than 30 minutes to binge upon. Here is how we made it so quickly:

Ingredients:

200 gms spaghetti
6-8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
3-4 sliced button mushrooms
½ cup of finely chopped parsley
½ cup of olive oil
1 cup finely shredded cheese of choice*
2 tsp chili flakes
3 tsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper
Salt, to taste

*We have used cheddar cheese for this recipe, generally parmesan cheese is used

Procedure:

Fill half of a pan with water, add 1 tbsp salt and bring it to boil Now, add the spaghetti in it and keep on stirring occasionally. Keep it cooking until spaghetti becomes soft. Drain the water out
In another pan, add olive oil and garlic. Switch on the flame now and slowly cook the garlic until it starts turning golden. Now add zucchini & mushrooms and cook until garlic is golden brown in colour. Now remove from heat
Add ½ cup of boiling pasta water to it. This will help in preventing garlic from being over cooked. Add chili flakes, oregano, black pepper and salt. Give a good mix
In a bowl, place the spaghetti, pour the infused olive oil, add some fresh parsley and shredded cheese. Toss the spaghetti and Aglio Olio is ready to serve topped with cheese

Points to note:

Boil the pasta and infuse the oil parallely. This will ensure that spaghetti does not coagulate
Do not rinse the spaghetti otherwise it will lose its texture and moist
Let the garlic infuse in olive oil. The whole process of cooking garlic might take upto 8-10 minutes. Add zucchini when bubbles start to form in the oil. Cook for another 2-3 minutes
Boiling pasta water helps to retain the taste and avoiding strong garlic flavour hence advisable to add 1/2 – 3/4 cup of same