Pilato
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N°01 · italian · easy · 15 min · serves 4
Aglio e Olio
Five ingredients, fifteen minutes, no shortcuts.
Ingredients
- Pilato Vermicelli250g
- Garlic — thinly sliced6 cloves
- Red chilli flakes1/2 tsp
- Extra-virgin olive oil1/3 cup
- Flat-leaf parsley — finely chopped1/2 cup
- Salt — for pasta waterto taste
Method
Boil the vermicelli
Salt three litres of water heavily and bring to a rolling boil. Drop the vermicelli and cook eight minutes to al dente. Save one full cup of pasta water before draining.
Bloom the garlic and chilli
Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low. Add the sliced garlic and chilli flakes and coax them slowly for three minutes until the garlic is pale gold — never brown, or it turns bitter.
Toss and emulsify
Tip the drained vermicelli into the pan with half a cup of pasta water. Crank heat to medium and toss vigorously for thirty seconds — the starch and oil should marry into a glossy, clinging sauce.
Finish off heat
Pull the pan off the burner. Fold in the chopped parsley and a final raw drizzle of olive oil. Plate immediately into warm bowls.
Chef's note. Emulsion is everything. Without pasta water and a hard toss, this becomes oily noodles. With them, it becomes the dish that taught me why Italians don't need more than five ingredients.
Skip the masala here if you want the Roman original. But if you bloom half a sachet with the chilli flakes, you get a garlic-clove-cardamom perfume that no Roman nonna would forgive — and no Indian eater would refuse.