The recipe for Aglio, olio et peperonchino will
soon be published here. This morning, Saturday, however I must go to the
Jean Talon market, my favourite Montréal market, which just happens to be the
heart of Montréal's little Italy. (Notice, I didn't say "it's in
the heart of Montréal's little Italy", because a market with an abundance
of fresh produce, Italian butchershops, and bakeries really is
the heart of Montréal's Italian community.)
Fini les excuses! La mia ricetta per Aglio,
olio et peperonchino is now found at this link!
So, if you're good in the meantime (the times, they can be so mean these days), maybe I bring you something from the market. I'm going to Motta bakery for more of the nutbread (not a cake-like bread but real solid bread with nuts - walnuts, pine nuts? - baked into it) and also some "sabbata?" (that's not how it's spelled but if you say it like that they'll know to give you the bread made without salt that is so good with olive oil and balsamic vinegar).
Arrivederci!
Maybe you want to go to Venice until
I get back? Or back to the recipes page?
Or my home page.
Aglio, olio et peperonchino:
Ingredients (enough for two people):
Peperonchino - 2 hot chili peppers (I bought a
bag of these, enough for several years, for $1.29 at a chinese grocery.
Or you can spend $48 of your time and energy trying to grow your own, but not
having enough sunlight in your backyard and failing miserably and then go out
and buy them. These are the dried whole hot chili's or buy already broken
into pieces - don't use chili powder, though).
Olio - I buy a bottle (750 ml or
1 litre) of Extra Virgin olive oil (and now the more important qualification)
that is from the first cold press of the olives.
Aglio - Garlic, let's say 2 cloves (use however much you feel comfortable
with).
Pasta - use spaghetti, linguini, fettucini or, if you can find it long macaroni (a little bit thicker than spaghetti but hollow inside). How much? Let's say 300 g.
Procedure: Boil a pot of water (2 litres). Start your Dettweiler's Smoked Pork Sausage at the same time in a frying pan. Prepare the hot chilis and the garlic. I bought a gadget at a Stokes store that is supposed to simplify taking the skins off of garlic cloves. It is a small sheet of green rubber with little bumps on it. You roll each clove up in the sheet and roll it on the counter until the skin loosens. The instruction sheet claimed that this would save you from garlic odour on your hands (the horrors). This made me think of an even better use of this wonder gadget. Roll the chili peppers in it and crush the chilis with it! I tried this and it worked so well that I will never go back to trying to cut up the chilis with a knife (akin to playing tiddley-winks) and then having the hot stuff on my hands and inadvertently putting on my contact lenses afterward (imagine the pain arising out of such stupidity). However, even this new gadget solution had negative side effects. My nose started running and I began sneezing (must be good peppers - something powerful in the air) and afterward my fingers tasted like rubber and this flavour transferred to the pasta when I tasted it for "al denténess".
Anyways, where are we? Your sausage and pasta are cooking and you have minced garlic (I use a knife, you could also use a garlic press) and crushed chilis. Your nose is running and you are sneezing? Sounds about right. In another pot (or wait until the pasta is finished and drained and use the pasta pot) - I use the one with the heaviest bottom - pour the olive oil until it covers the bottom. Olive oil is not a frying oil. Use the lowest heat setting on your stove and take care not to do much more than warm the oil as prolonged heating will change the nature of the olive oil very quickly (or, as an alternative, use the cheapest olive oil available so as not to risk ruining good oil). Put the minced or pressed garlic and the crushed chilis in the oil. Swirl the mix a couple of times so that the garlic and chili flavour spreads into the oil. Take the pot with the oil, garlic and chilis off of the burner at this point to avoid overheating the oil. When your pasta is ready, drain it. At this point, I dump the majority of the oil mix on top of pasta in the drainer and then quickly (before the oil mix drains) transfer the pasta into the oil pot. Mix the oil, garlic and chili mix through the pasta with the pasta fork and serve.
As part of my Italian language course, each student was asked to orally give instructions in Italian on how to prepare your favourite dish. For simplicity sake I decided to choose aglio, olio et peperonchino as my favourite dish. (There was a certain "kill two birds with one stone" thinking as well, as I was overdue to have this recipe listed here.) The professor protested when I began my oral presentation because, you have to understand, this is such a basic Italian dish that it would be almost like giving instructions on how to prepare Kraft dinner. Before writing my Italian recipe instructions I searched the web for instructions in Italian for this dish. I don't believe I found any, because it is the kind of thing that everybody is just supposed to know. So now you know, even if you did have to learn it from Ted Dettweiler on his quirky web-site instead of learning it from mamma alla casa.