The first pasta dish i learned, courtesy of Jamie Oliver, is this recipe, basically a sauce of butter and freshly grated Parmesan. It was a time when cooking pasta to al dente was challenging enough for me, a time when i had first encounter my cooking renaissance, almost 13 years ago, when the best thing i could do to get food on the table was calling for the waiter. Today i could probably prepare this dish with both eyes closed. This recipe gives you a really good feel for how to cook pasta properly, you want the sauce just to coat the pasta.
Serves 4
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely grated
40g of butter
450g of spaghetti, linguine, fettucinne or tagliatelle
2 to 3 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a pan, melt the butter and gently fry the garlic in it without coloring for a couple of minutes. Cook your pasta and reserve some of the cooking water. Pour in the cooked pasta into the melted butter together with the Parmesan and toss the pasta around to have the sauce coat the strands properly. Use the reserved pasta cooking water to loosened the sauce if it became too thick. Once you have the desired consistency, season to taste and serve immediately.
There are many ways to vary this sauce – you can stir in some chopped tomatoes into the garlice butter before removing from the heat, or you can incorporate different cheeses, but the key is to get simple, well-seasoned, delicate pasta coated in a butter cheese sauce.
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