the quest for aglio olio

Aglio olio changed my perspective on Italian food. There was a time when I thought that Italian was all about obscene amounts of tomato or cream sauce. Aglio olio opened my eyes to the fact that some Italian food involved obscene amounts of garlic and oil. It's such a charming dish because it's easy to make, hard to screw up, but also very hard to make outstanding. (as Colin put it)

My first attempt at aglio olio was last week. I got the ingredients off the net, and the rest of it was agaration. Somehow the pasta turned out slightly burnt.

The second attempt was at Wenhui's house. It was no better than the first, except this time it wasn't burnt and was more spicy cos more chili. But first time still seemed nicer. There were also all these garlic clumps.


Today I went to Timo's at Maxwell with Anne and Celine to watch the master at work, and perhaps find out what his secret ingredients were. As far as I'm concerned his is the holy grail of alio olio. He was very kind to let me stand beside him and watch. And just like Po in Kung Fu Panda, I realised that there was no secret ingredient. He basically used olive oil, garlic, chilies, sausages, salt and pepper just like I did. No parsley, no oregano or whatever. And the result was still as heavenly as the first time I'd tried it.