Tasty Tuesday- Garlic and Red Pepper Spaghetti

I found a recipe on Pinterest the other day. I thought it looked pretty good, but it could be improved. 

It is so simple and super tasty. Nathan requests it at least twice a week. It's also nice because, even though California is sucking us dry because it is so ridiculously expensive, this meal is very cheap. 

This isn't a recipe with measurements, really. It all depends on your taste. SO. Without further ado...

Oh, and these pictures were taken with my iPhone. Because I'm not a food blogger. 

Garlic and Red Pepper Spaghetti

Step 1: Put some olive oil in a pan. I like about 1 Tbsp per serving

Step 1 Part 2: Put some spaghetti noodles on to boil. I'm not going to tell you how to do that cuz, seriously. If you don't know how to boil pasta, it tells you on the package. Whilst that is heating up, move along to step 2 and 3.

 

Can you see my cat spoon rest? 

Step 2: Sprinkle some red pepper flakes/crushed red pepper into the oil.

 

The pan looks a bit messy. That's because I already made this once today, but Nathan requested more for him to take for lunch, so here we are. This step depends on how much spice you like. This amount here was pretty spicy for me, but fine for Nathan. I have no idea how much it is. Trial and error here. Even when it is super spicy, it's still good, though! Just grab a glass of milk to drink with it, and you'll be fine!

 

See? Already been eaten once. Mmm.

Step 3: Put some garlic in that pan

Now, I love garlic, and we eat it a lot. What I don't like to do is mince garlic. It takes forever, my fingers get sticky, and it's just annoying. So, I always have this in my fridge.

 

It's tasty. And so easy. One teaspoon is equal to approx 1-2 average sized cloves.

So I add about 1 tsp per serving. Add more. Add less. Whatever you wanna do! 

Step 4: Add some kosher salt. We love salt, so I throw in a couple "grabs" as I call it.. we have a bowl of kosher salt. I pick up what I can with my fingers and use that. A couple times. Whenever it looks like you've got enough. 

Looks kinda gross, huh?

Step 5: Turn the stove on to low heat (I start at the lowest number, 2, on my stove, then move it even lower after a couple minutes). Basically, you just don't want to burn the garlic. It still tastes ok if you do (I've been caught watching tv and forgetting about it... oops) but it's better if you don't! I also like to use a splatter guard, because garlic likes to "hop" when it's cooking!

 

You'll notice the olive oil starting to change color a bit as it becomes infused. 

Once it's been crackling for a while, and you've turned it down for a couple minutes, just turn it off, and let the heat of the pan do the rest. 

Once your pasta is done and strained, just throw it right into the pan.

 

Then take tongs or a spoon and fork or whatever you'd like and toss the pasta to make sure it gets all covered in the oil. Then dump it out into a bowl or on to plates.

 

Doesn't this look so boring? It does. It almost just looks like plain cooked pasta. Oh, but it isn't. The deliciously infused oil is just waiting to prove to you that it is super yummy. If I have some grape tomatoes, I like to cook those in the oil as well. Very tasty. 

Here is the post that I adapted my recipe from: Recipe

Hope the few people who read regularly or maybe some extras from Scavenger Hunt Sunday (hi!) will try and enjoy this. It's definitely a favorite for us!