Ciao! Today, we're going Italian with a twist of Filipino Christmas festivity. Mamma mia!!!
I've only known recently of Qurator's weekly Hive Top Chef cooking competition and I guess I discovered it just in time because this week's required ingredient is Garlic.
Oh man, I love garlic! It's one of the holy trinity spices of Filipino cuisine: garlic, onion, and ginger. I love it on fried rice, pasta, bread, as garlic confit, or any dishes. It's also a natural antibiotic. My mama used to let me take fresh minced garlic with honey whenever I get cough.
So what I'm going to share for this contest is one of my favorite pasta dish which uses lots of garlic..
It's a very easy dish to make and has a light savory taste due to the garlic and chili. I remember finding this pasta dish kind of weird when I first tasted it. I was used to spaghetti and Filipino carbonara that's why a pasta with only garlic and chili really surprised my tastebuds. It tasted bland. Lol. But as I often cooked it before, I learned to make my own version that I would really love. And this is the recipe I will be sharing here.
1️⃣ I used a whole garlic because this recipe makes three servings and I like my aglio olio with a strong taste of garlic. So peel the garlic and slice it as thin as you can.
How do you peel your garlic? The only technique I know is putting the knife handle above it and smack it with my palm. Do you have an easier way or a hack you can share?
2️⃣ Three days ago, I was surprised to find this tiny Christmas ham in our freezer. I asked around the house and found out that it was part of the Christmas package given by our barangay (village). Nobody eats meat in our home except me and I've also already bought my own Christmas ham so might as well use this extra ham for the pasta. I cut around 1/3 of this ham and sliced it into bite-sized cubes.
3️⃣ Now let's begin by cooking the pasta. Fill a pot with enough water and add around a teaspoon of salt. Bring it to a boil before putting the pasta. For cooking the pasta, just follow the instructions written on the packaging. This pasta I used require 10 to 11 minutes to cook. (Don't forget to set aside around 5 tablespoons of pasta water before draining!)
4️⃣ Then on a pan, put a bit of olive oil and fry the ham in low heat. Once it's cooked, remove from the pan and set aside.
5️⃣ On the same pan, pour the 5 tbsps. of olive oil and also the butter.
6️⃣ Then put in the slices of garlic. Continue to saute until the garlic is soft.
7️⃣ Next, add some chili flakes. The amount depends on how spicy you want your pasta. Continue to saute for 3 minutes.
8️⃣ Put back the cooked ham, mix, and let it sit for at least a minute.
9️⃣ Now it's time to add the pasta.
Always pour the pasta water around the pasta first before proceeding with mixing. The pasta water will soften the pasta, thus, making it easier for you to mix everything together.
🔟 This step is optional but I like dusting some parmesan powder while mixing the pasta aside from putting some on top later on when served on a plate.
1️⃣1️⃣ Continue mixing until the garlic, ham, and cheese is well-distrubuted on the pasta and until the pasta is completely coated with oil.
It's time to plate!
1️⃣2️⃣ Place enough pasta on your plate and put enough bits of ham on top.
Dust more parmesan powder.
And lastly, garnish with dried parsley.
Aglio olio is my go to pasta recipe when I'm craving pasta yet lazy at the same time. I love its slight spicy, cheesy, and garlicky taste. I'm not sure if this dish is completely healthy but maybe it is due to the garlic.
Actually, this recipe can have more Filipino festivity touch if you replace the parmesan powder with grated edam cheese. Like this one I made earlier this year.
I do have edam cheese right now but I don't want to slice it until Christmas Eve. Haha. Sorry! Edam cheese is a bit more salty and is also a perfect cheese to aglio olio so you might want to try that too, next time!
By the way, you can also make a garlic bread to pair with the aglio olio. :)
That's all! Enjoy, folks!!!
