The classic Italian pasta dish, tagliatelle aglio e olio e peperoncino

Aglio e olio e peperoncino. The words first came to my ears in the 1980s when a man called Nino had a restaurant called, yes, Nino’s, in Cape Town’s Burg Street, in premises which later became Talk of the Town, our favourite Indian restaurant and Press Club after-hours hangout for the decade that followed.

But back then, Nino in his white apron would usher us to a booth table while telling us, as he did every time we visited, that the aglio e olio was perfect and made with the oil of the big jar of peeled garlic he kept in olive oil in his fridge. “Tony, Tony, you want aglio e olio tonight? I make special for you.” He once even gave me a whole bottle of it, to languor in my fridge for a year before being used up.

You have no idea how garlicky garlic can be until Nino has made you his aglio e olio e peperoncino from the pungency of what was in that jar. The words simply mean garlic and oil with chillies.

The first time he’d said those words to me he’d had to explain it. Spaghetti adorned with olive oil in which garlic had been steeped, with finely chopped red chilli. The oil in all its garlicky glory is the sauce, is what flavours the pasta, is everything. No Parmesan (Nino would pull a scornful face; “No no no, Tony, you don’t put Parmigiano wi’ aglio e olio!”), no cream, no bits of chopped bacon, artichoke, tomato, olive, nothing. I was sceptical at first, and then he brought the dish out and I swooned. I ordered it every time after that. For years.

Here’s my version of the classic Italian late-night meal, aglio e olio e peperoncino. You need plenty of garlic for those, so don’t stint; if the ones you have are small cloves, use more of them.

Ingredients

500 g tagliatelle or spaghetti

4 plump garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 green chillies, seeded and finely chopped

½ cup / 125 ml Babylonstoren Frantoio cold extracted extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp red chilli flakes

Coarse sea/ kosher salt

Black pepper

3 Tbsp pasta water

Finely grated Parmesan (optional)

Method

Of course you can use another olive oil of your choice, but this recipe does deserve a fine quality product.

Pour the olive oil into a small pot and add the chopped garlic and green chilli. Apply a small amount of heat to warm it up so that the garlic and chilli flavours begin to steep into it. Let it steep for 10 minutes on the lowest heat. Season with coarse sea (kosher) salt and black pepper and add the chilli flakes. Judge how salty and peppery it needs to be while tasting and adding, but bear in mind that it does need to be quite salty and peppery.

Cook the pasta until al dente. Spoon off 3 or 4 Tbsp of the pasta water and reserve it to add to the pasta before serving.

Drain the pasta and return it to the pan. Pour in the aglio e olio, add the reserved pasta water and the chopped parsley, toss through and serve, with or without grated Parmesan. I hesitate to confess that I did add finely grated Parmigiano. I hope the spirit of Nino in his Italian heaven will forgive me. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023. Buy his book, foodSTUFF, here. 

Mervyn Gers Ceramics supplies dinnerware for the styling of some TGIFood shoots. For more information, click here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

SUBSCRIBE to TGIFood here. Also visit the TGIFood platform, a repository of all of our food writing.