Pasta with Garlic & Oil
*serves 4-6

Almost every Sunday, for as long as I can truly remember, we’ve eaten pasta. Heaping bowls filled with macaroni and, usually, red sauce with meatballs, ribs and sausages on the side. It’s tradition, right? Well, I mean, I think there’s room to change things up. In the summer months I find pasta with red sauce to be heavy so we’ve been opting for pesto, but we were over it. I recently made a bright and creamy lemon egg yolk pasta sauce that had peas and onions bathing in it — but I digress and I’ve yet to get around to penning the recipe. But this past Sunday I figured why not make a simple pasta with garlic and olive oil? We had everything in the house, it would be fast, light, slick with an oily film that would go down easy in perfect little slurps. No one was opposed to this idea and since dad loves his Sunday macaroni, even if he doesn’t know it’s Sunday, it’s his cue that the week begins again — even if he may forget tomorrow. It’s been hard, but food allows us to gather and while he’s not making new memories, we are here knowing that the gift of tradition remains for him — a reminder — fleeting and garlicky, oily and just like my grandmother made.

Typically pasta garlic and oil is prepared with long pasta — aka spaghetti — but my dad can no longer eat long pasta because its become a hazard. Gemelli is beautiful, it has some length, and the garlic, parsley and cheese get into it coils for a succession of tasty bites. This meal takes all of 15 minutes to prepare with chopping and boiling pasta, much less work than Sunday sauce and rolling out the food processor for pesto.

Serve with a big salad, cheese or toss in some shrimp — you can’t go wrong.
Happy Sunday Dinner — any day of the week.

Pasta with Garlic & Oil
*serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 whole bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
6-8 large cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, optional (we’re a heat family)
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 pound pasta of choice cooked al dente in WELL SALTED PASTA WATER
RESERVED PASTA WATER
High quality grating cheese, recommended percorino romano

Instructions
Chop parsley and place in a small to medium sauce pan
Mince garlic and add to the sauce pan with the parsley along with the crushed red pepper flakes
Add in the extra virgin olive oil
Heat the mixture over a very low flame until it is very fragrant
Boil salted pasted water and cook pasta according to instructions, ensuring it’s al dente
Reserve at least 1 cup of pasta water in a heat safe/pyrex measuring cup
Strain pasta and place in a large pasta bowl
Pour the parsley and garlic mixture over the top and gently toss pasta to coat
Add in pasta water AS NEEDED ONLY — we don’t want soggy pasta — we want a little tiny bit of liquid and salty flavor from the water
Top with grated pecorino romano cheese and mix
Serve hot, topped with more pecorino and crushed red pepper — if you dare