How to Boil Water: Spaghetti with Olive Oil & Garlic

I chose this recipe mostly because we had a lot of spaghetti in there and I wanted to get rid of some of it, but I wanted to go with something different than the regular options. Who wants to be ordinary? And I cook with olive oil and I cook with garlic...a lot. So as per our tradition, we tried something new and was it successful? The cooking of it was successful. Rob did most of the work actually, which is always a nice bonus for me. And overall this meal was actually quite easy but will we have it again? I'm not gonna tell you yet - I'm gonna leave you in suspense because that's my right as the blog author.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for pasta-cooking water and to taste

1 pound spaghetti - we did not use this much, but we are only two

4-6 cloves garlic

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves - I just used dried because I didn't want to buy fresh just for this recipe

Chunk of Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Bring a large pot of cold water to a boil over high heat and salt it generously. Add the spaghetti and boil, stirring occasionally, until al dente, about 12 minutes. 

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Smash, peel, and corasely chop the garlic. In a large skillet combine the garlic, olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and some black pepper. Warm the garlic and oil over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic turns golden; be careful not to let the oil get too hot or the garlic will turn brown and bitter.

Chop the parsley. When the pasta is just done, use tongs to lift it out of the water, letting most of the water drip off. Carefully transfer the pasta to the skillet. Stir and turn the pasta with the tongs to coat all the strands with the garlic. If the noodles seem dry, add up to 1/4 cup of the pasta-cooking water. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Transfer to a large serving bowl and mix in the parsley. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan. 

So the answer to the question that is burning in your minds? I hope you didn't just skip to the bottom to read the answer. Well, the answer is: no we aren't going to have this again. No we didn't really like it. We ate it, but it was not that great. It was a little bland and it felt too oily with all the olive oil. I don't know exactly what I was expecting considering what the recipe was called, but you just never know. I didn't plan anything else with this meal which might have helped some, but probably not. So this is not going in the book of favorites. This isn't even a try again recipe...ever.