Can someone teach me a simple beautiful spaghetti dish?

[iknowthismuchis]

I love spaghetti but I'm an awful cook and I also hate cooking.

But I've been to several restaurants recently wanting a simple, fresh spaghetti dish. No meat or fish. Not soaked in sauce, not pesto. I've not found anything good (no good Italian restaurant near me)

Can anyone teach me something really fresh and simple please?

Good olive oil, preferably spanish or greek, and I mean very good

Put a little in a small sauce pan, warm very gently, just about warm

Finely chop garlic, chilli, spring onion, very fine

put in the warming oil, so you are sort of infusing the oil, but not too much oil, you want the mixture to be almost like a salsa consistency

Pour over the spaghetti when infused.

Dont cook or fry the mixture, just warm it through

That sounds like what I'm after, could I swap garlic for cherry tomatoes? Any recommendations for oil?

Look up the pasta queen on Facebook, she is amazing, gorgeous, funny and best of all her dishes look really easy and authentic.

Heat halved cherry tomatoes and crushed garlic on very low heat in olive oil until tomatoes are softer in a sauté pan. Keep heating on low while spaghetti is cooking. Add pasta to tomatoes and add a good handful of chopped fresh parsley. Mix well and add parmesan or squeeze of lemon.

Do the same but with frozen broad beans (fully shelled).

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spaghetti-puttanesca

This is gorgeous! Very easy to make.

This is delicious

annajones.co.uk/recipe/a-modern-way-to-cook-is-out

You don't need to add in the kale if you don't want

I do similarly with garlic, butter and cherry tomatoes. Sometimes garlic, butter, prawns and fresh spinach. My OH makes an excellent spaghetti aglio e olio (PP’s recipe without chilli and spring onions basically) and a creamy-but-zesty spaghetti with forest mushrooms, creme fraiche, lemon and parsley.

4 or 5 small zucchini
Handful of pancetta or lardons
One large clove of garlic
Pinch dried chili
Parmigiano

Cut your zucchini into cubes (size of the top of your little finger). Peal and squash your garlic.

Cook the pancetta In a hot skillet so the fat renders. When it is nice and see through take it out with a slotted spoon. Keep it. Add the zucchini to the pan and cook it quickly without browning it (5 mins?) so it holds shape. Add the garlic and chili half way through. At the end add back in pancetta.

Mix into your hot pasta, add a drizzle of olive oil, cheese to serve, sit down and devour.

Tip on timing - the sauce take about 10 minutes to cook.

‘Nother tip - also good with fresh or frozen prawn.

@iknowthismuchis

That sounds like what I'm after, could I swap garlic for cherry tomatoes? Any recommendations for oil?

Absolutely, trying to keep anything fresh and not too 'cooked' is the key

Well I usually find aldi quite good if Im honest but not every does, and its dependent on taste so practice a bit

I am not keen on the peppery ones myself, I prefer the more fruity but also savory ones.

Onion, garlic, tomatoes, basil and cheese is good (cheese something like feta or grilled halloumi or buffalo mozzarella). Pinch of nutmeg is good in it!

Following for ideas. I like the thought or a wine or oil based sauce as it's seems better for summer

Have a look on the BBC News Food section at Simon Rimmer's recipe for Pasta Primavera.
You can change the vegetable selection to what you have available, for instance add spinach leaves, change the soya beans to haricots verts.

I usually leave out the hazelnuts!

Another favourite here is the River Café spaghetti with lemon. The Waitrose website has an easy to follow recipe for it. Enjoy!

I love spaghetti just with a simple sauce made from good olive oil, fresh finely chopped garlic, finely grated parmesan, salt and crushed fennel seeds. I'll often use a brand of tinned tomatoes called 'Mutti' which are excellent, too - either the chopped version or the cherry version.

Every month I buy a big block of parmesan - it's lovely sprinkled on just about anything, but gives a lovely depth to spaghetti sauces especially.

I put cherry tomatoes, chilli, olive oil, garlic and a splash of balsamic vinegar in a roasting tray....cook in oven until the tomatoes soften and get a bit jammy. Toss with al dente spaghetti and top with grated parmesan. Also you can fry some breadcrumbs in olive oil until crispy and top the spaghetti with that too.

If you want to learn how to do authentic pasta dishes, one of the best books is Diane Seed's 100 pasta sauces.

I'm in Italy, and it's the only cook book I have that doesn't make my Italian husband (a chef) sob in horror. It's a cheap little book with just drawings and no fancy photos.

Rule of thumb for any pasta dish:
Never onion and garlic in the same dish
Basil with tomato sauces, unless it's pizza in which case oregano. Parsley for chopping finely over grilled vegetables.
Way more oil and salt than you'd imagine, and way less garlic or onion.

Agree with pp that Muti tomatoes are the best if you're buying tinned whole or chopped. Buy decent pasta.

The full recipe is a bit faffy but I often make it at home without the spinach balls. I usually use spaghetti.

www.carluccios.com/recipes/penne-giardiniera/

Pm.

Hungry now!

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/spaghetti-aglio-olio-spring-greens/#Fg148atCWixF977c.99 - basically spaghetti, spring greens/kale, parmesan, chilli, lemon - very easy, tasty & fresh

This is very easy, used good quality tinned tomatoes though. www.recipetineats.com/slow-cooker-marinara-sauce/

Its nice on its own with pasta and can be used as a pizza sauce.

A good knob of butter in a pan, a clove or two of finely chopped garlic (doesn't have to be precise), heat through until the garlic is softened and slightly golden.

Add a good glug of light soy sauce and add cooked spaghetti with a tablespoon or two of the spaghetti water. Stir on a low heat until sauce emulsifies. Not greasy or heavy at all

I like linguine with ricotta and spinach. Usually stick some frozen spinach in the pasta pan, then drain and put back on the lowest heat while I stir in some ricotta. Then - important / drizzle with olive oil, add pepper (can do nutmeg too) and a bit of Parmesan. It’s a good mix of fresh and rich, if that’s a thing.

My favourite pasta is simply halved cherry tomatoes, lobbed in the frying pan with olive oil and cooked until they start to burst. You can add garlic/dried chilli/basil/balsamic vinegar. Toss in some spaghetti and add some more olive oil. Taught to me by my Italian dad. Ready in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta!

[quote PurpleDaisies]The full recipe is a bit faffy but I often make it at home without the spinach balls. I usually use spaghetti.

www.carluccios.com/recipes/penne-giardiniera/[/quote]
This is one of my favourite recipes and I often leave out the spinach balls.

My go to quick pasta for the kids is baby cherry tomatoes halved or quartered roasted or pan fried with a little garlic and olive oil tossed in spaghetti. I add fresh herbs if I have any and for my tomato hating child I half olives and toss through spaghetti and olive oil with a few herbs and garlic.