those who know me know i LOVE garlic. those that don’t (at gaußstraße 81, at least), soon will.
i’m not a very skilled cook, and i like simple foods. when i say simple, i mean that if it takes more than say…10 minutes from when i bust open a package of frozen veggies or pasta to when i start eating, i’ll probably lose interest in making it. cooking doesn’t usually give me any relief from stress, so, for me, it’s more like a means to an end (which is eating tasty food, which IS stress relieving).
the inspiration started with a trip to vapiano with Kookie. i saw pasta aglio e olio on the menu, and thought that i hadn’t had it for a couple of months, but also that i could easy make it at home. i’ve been on a strange eating regimen lately – essentially i only have veggies at home, which is a healthy thing, but…there’s no variety! since tonight is a friday night, and i have the whole weekend to try to rid myself and my apartment of the smell, i thought it’d be an excellent idea to make some fried garlic in oil, and then use it to make pasta aglio e olio.
Ingredients:
- garlic
- salt
- olive oil
- pasta
i used a LOT of garlic to make my fried garlic stock.
i’m not too sure on how many cloves exactly it was that i used…but it was 3 bulbs worth. that’s right, BULBS. my eyes started to water when i was chopping them, and yes. it’s garlic, not onions.
essentially i just chopped them up and fried them in about a half cm of olive oil until some of them started to turn golden brown. i let the fried garlic cool for a bit in the pan (so nothing unfortunate would happen to my untempered glass jar), then scooped everything into the jar and topped it off with more olive oil to completely cover the garlic. then i put it into the fridge – done!
to make the pasta dish, i just boiled some pasta until al dente, scooped about a spoonful of garlic and oil onto the drained pasta, salted to taste, shaved some parma, and started eating =) it required no skill whatsoever (which is good, because i don’t have any!).
now i can enjoy pasta aglio e olio any time i want. i just have to vent my apartment for about a week…it smells so bad in here that i’m afraid to open the door to leave my apartment. i’ll just have to do it when no one’s looking =)
improvements: a rucola salad and a side of bread. mushrooms too, maybe, but no meat. i think aglio e olio is one of those dishes that just feel a bit wrong with meat or fish.
PhooD Journal 