4 ms·

I often made garlic/oil/chili pepper spaghetti in the past. IMO doing anything fancy with the oil is completely unnecessary as you can infuse tons of flavour ri

I often made garlic/oil/chili pepper spaghetti in the past. IMO doing anything fancy with the oil is completely unnecessary as you can infuse tons of flavour right at the cooking stage that happens 10min before eating: Use four garlic cloves per person, slice as thinly as you can (think Good Fellas), boil together with chili at the lowest heat in a high quality olive oil just until soft, take off the heat. Add pasta water, salt, fresh italian flat parsley, almost cooked spaghetti and heat/soak for another minute, serve with parmesan. I also like to add sun dried oil tomatoes (commercial of course) together with the parsley. There, I don't understand how you need more garlic flavour.

tptacek 9y ago
I do sort of the opposite thing: I dump a whole mess of whole cloves --- sometimes even the supermarket jugs of peeled garlic (which are for any other application pretty gross) --- into a saucier, cover with oil (cheap oil is fine, I think, because cooking is going to destroy the subtle flavors), and cook in a very slow oven until the garlic is soft.
porlune 9y ago
Slightly off topic: I want to take a moment to point out something else that is completely unnecessary: Flambé. If anything I think that adding alcohol and immediately burning it off will only remove the subtle flavors the food already has.
- magnetic 9y ago
  Sorry, I can't agree. "Crêpes Suzette" are delicious...
  - porlune 9y ago
    I agree that Crepes are amazing - I make them often (Nutella and banana mostly, sometimes just sugar), but I disagree that Flambe improves the flavor at all.. There is no need to Flambe the dish prior to serving it. Almost all flavor is in the aroma. Flambe does nothing to add flavor - at best it is removing those precious aromatic compounds and at worst an inexperienced cook is going to burn down their kitchen. Flambe is all for show. If you want to add flavor from alcohol (like Grand Marnier), you should just render it down into a syrup. Anyway, that's the advice I got from a better chef than myself, just passing along the knowledge.

tptacek 9y ago

I do sort of the opposite thing: I dump a whole mess of whole cloves --- sometimes even the supermarket jugs of peeled garlic (which are for any other application pretty gross) --- into a saucier, cover with oil (cheap oil is fine, I think, because cooking is going to destroy the subtle flavors), and cook in a very slow oven until the garlic is soft.

porlune 9y ago

Slightly off topic: I want to take a moment to point out something else that is completely unnecessary: Flambé. If anything I think that adding alcohol and immediately burning it off will only remove the subtle flavors the food already has.

magnetic 9y ago
Sorry, I can't agree. "Crêpes Suzette" are delicious...
- porlune 9y ago
  I agree that Crepes are amazing - I make them often (Nutella and banana mostly, sometimes just sugar), but I disagree that Flambe improves the flavor at all.. There is no need to Flambe the dish prior to serving it. Almost all flavor is in the aroma. Flambe does nothing to add flavor - at best it is removing those precious aromatic compounds and at worst an inexperienced cook is going to burn down their kitchen. Flambe is all for show. If you want to add flavor from alcohol (like Grand Marnier), you should just render it down into a syrup. Anyway, that's the advice I got from a better chef than myself, just passing along the knowledge.