We got inspired to make a pasta dish showcasing our Olio Nuovo, now that we’re bottling this limited-release extra virgin olive oil. It’s an unfiltered EVOO we bottle immediately after it’s been pressed, producing a “burst” of fresh olive fruitiness.
To make the pasta, we turned to a favorite cookbook, Fran Gage’s “The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009), and adapted her recipe for spaghetti with Olio Nuovo.
It’s a simple dish featuring spaghetti, Olio Nuovo, plenty of garlic, a pinch of red chili flakes and a hand-harvested sea salt known as fleur de sel. We adapted Gage’s recipe by using a bit more garlic – we’ve supplied a range, depending on your garlic appetite. And we’ve added three tablespoons of chopped parsley. We also referred to a recipe published in Cook’s Illustrated for ideas about proportions.
Our spaghetti with Olio Nuovo (recipe below) is a riff on the classic Italian dish pasta aglio e olio. It’s a pasta with a colorful history.
“Its humble origins are in the shanty towns of Rome, but it is now a universal favorite, especially among Rome’s chic insomniacs, who depend upon a wee hours’ spaghettata to see them through the night until their early-morning bedtime,” writes Italian food expert Marcella Hazan.
Feel free to vary the ingredients for our spaghetti. More garlic? Fewer red pepper flakes? More Olio Nuovo?
You decide. And please let us know of your favorite creations using Olio Nuovo.
Spaghetti with Olio Nuovo
4 to 6 servings
1 pound dried spaghetti
6 tablespoons California Olive Ranch Olio Nuovo, divided
2 teaspoons table salt or kosher salt, divided
¼ to 1/3 cup minced garlic (about 20 medium garlic cloves)
¼ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
fleur de sel to taste
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
- Bring about 5 quarts of water to boil. Add the spaghetti and 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt, cooking the spaghetti until al dente.
- While spaghetti is cooking, gently heat 3 tablespoons of Olio Nuovo and half a teaspoon of salt in a 10-inch skillet over low heat. Add the garlic and cook until it becomes straw-colored, stirring the garlic often to prevent it from becoming overcooked. Turn off heat and add the red pepper flakes and parsley.
- Drain the pasta, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking water. Add the garlic and olive oil mixture to the pasta as well as the additional 3 tablespoons of Olio Nuovo. Stir to combine, adding some of the reserved cooking water to help coat pasta with the sauce. Add fleur de sel to taste.
- We like to top our pasta with freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of Olio Nuovo.
Bon appétit,
Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch
