Time for The Most Classic Italian Pantry Pasta: Midnight Spaghetti
Make your own 10 minute 3-ingredient spaghettata, plus the luckiest giveaway winner, February celebrations, and peek inside my tiny Lake Como kitchen at FoodStack!
Ciao friends!
How are you? I am crawling out from under a large mountain of used tissues. Anyone else sick? I haven’t been able to hear out of my clogged left ear for 3 days. It’s like living in a tunnel. Let me know if you have any wisdom on how to unblock it because…tomorrow I’m taking the trenino rosso aka little red train through the snow-covered peaks, frozen lakes, and glaciers of the Swiss Alps from Tirano to St. Mortiz to celebrate Giorgio’s birthday! We've been looking forward to this for so long and I’d like my ear and sinuses to get with the program. ;-)
On to this week’s recipe!
Midnight Pasta
Any Italian pantry pasta series would be remiss without including The Most Classic of Pantry Pastas: spaghettata di mezzanotte aka midnight spaghetti. In my house we call it simply ‘aglio olio’ which is short for ‘aglio, olio, e pepperoncino’ garlic, oil, and chili pepper.
La vertità: I have never made it at midnight, but I suspect that is because I moved to Italy at 39 years old and 5 months pregnant.
The midnight spaghettata, which means ‘a spaghetti meal at midnight’, is largely a tradition of young Italians. (Cari Italiani: fammi sapere se non è giusto!)
The concept: After a sociable night out with friends, you all end up a someone’s house with everyone a little hungry. Being an Italian house, of course, all the ingredients are in the dispensa or pantry for this quick, simple, and delicious spaghettata. The kitchen is bubbling over with opinions and laughter - everyone knowing their ‘right way’ to make the condimento. Then the heady perfume of garlic fills the room, hot from the lit burners, no matter the seaon. Finally, the blerble sound and rising steam from boiling water. It’s almost time to eat and someone is inevitably shuffling through drawers to find the grattuggia for the parmigiano. Moments later, you’re all a tavola, effortlessly twirling spaghetti on forks, clinking glasses for ‘cin cin’, and passing pane to soak every drop of golden garlicky deliciousness. Sharing a meal together before going to bed - light, easily digestible - the perfect end to a night with amici.
Agrodolce magazine calls the spaghettata di mezzanotte a “rito sociale e culinario”, a social and culinary rite.
Tips to make the perfect pasta
Despite this pasta being terribly easy, fast, and made with only 4 ingredients, including the pasta, you CAN MESS IT UP, and yes, I have managed to do so. Here are my tips to avoid pasta pitfalls and have the PERFECT midnight pasta.
Quality: As with any simple recipe, the biggest tip is that the quality of the ingredients in everything. Choose good quality extra virgin olive oil and pasta.
Pasta type: As I waxed philosophical in my Bombshell Spaghetti Anchovy, Caper, and Olive pantry pasta post:
‘Pasta Philosophy: In the tradition of other lightweight sauces like aglio olio, we're are coating delicate thin strands of pasta with a flavorful adherent sauce. I normally offer flexible suggestions for other pasta options, but for me, even linguine is too much pasta to sauce ratio. Spaghetti is ubiquitous in shops and the perfect pasta for this.’
Olive oil 🫒: use extra-virgin olive oil, there are very few ingredients here. You are just flavoring the oil with garlic and pepperoncino, so it needs to be good quality oil as a base!
Garlic 🧄: Slice your garlic or crush it with the side of a knife, but do NOT mince it. It’s mission-impossible-level difficult to NOT burn it when it’s minced.
Dried or fresh pepperoncino 🌶️? You can use either! I almost always use little dried The longer you leave the pepper in the oil, the spicier the oil will become. I have, for weird reasons, left the oil and pepper resting on the stove for hours resulting in a nearly inedibly spicy oil.
Salt: You MUST taste your pasta water as you add salt to make sure it’s salty like the sea. This is the source of ALL salt in this dish. It will flavor both your pasta and sauce.
Scarpetta: have some good bread on hand to soak up any remaining oil in the bowl, in the Italian tradition of scooping up any remaining sauce with a hunk of bread. SO. GOOD. YUM.
Giveaway winner and other winter fun!!
Congrats to the winner of the From Italy With Love Giveaway, Rebecca Blackwell! Rebecca, also happens to be another writer here on Substack (Let’s Get Lost) and I can’t wait to see WHERE she manages to put the giveaway gifts, as she lives in an RV and has her limited kitchen storage amazingly organized down to the millimeter! Other recent February good things in photos. Deets in the caption.
Peek inside my Lake Como kitchen
It’s probably a lot smaller than you’d guess! But I have a few organizing tricks up my sleeve. Thanks to Lynn Hill, creator of the ingenious FoodStack Library, a resource of food writers and recipe creators on Substack. The interview was such a fun chat and opportunity to share a bit of my Italian cooking life and kitchen. Click below to check it out! ❤️
Midnight Spaghetti
Spaghetti di mezzanotte
FOR 4 PEOPLE
The ingredients
180ml / 12 Tbls good quality extra virgin olive oil (this is creating your sauce, so don’t skimp!)
4 cloves of garlic, sliced (if you want to eat it in crispy pieces, like I do) or peeled and smashed with the flat side of a knife
3 dried pepperoncino (chili pepper)
400 g spaghetti
Optional: chopped parsley and/or toasted breadcrumbs
The method
1) Fill a big tall pot with water and salt and set on high heat stove burner. Taste the water to make sure it’s salty like the sea (and add more salt if needed).
2) Add all extra virgin olive oil to a wide saucepan/skillet on medium-low to low heat. Add the garlic and pepperoncino. DO NOT GO ANYWHERE. It’s very easy to burn the garlic. This pasta takes a just a few minutes to make - stick around and babysit your garlic.
3) Stir your olive oil every once in a while or just give the pan a little shake. As soon as you see the garlic turning brown, pull the pan off the heat.
4) As soon as the water boils, add the spaghetti and cook until package time recommends for al dente
5) When pasta is nearly done, remove the pepperoncino from the oil.
6) When pasta is ready, strain pasta and add directly to the olive oil/garlic pan. Add a ladle-full of pasta water to the spaghetti and oil. Stir until pasta is coated.
Divide your pasta into pasta bowls and enjoy!
Serving notes:
Sprinkle with parmigiano reggiano, toasted breadcrumbs, and/or parsley if you like!
❤️ pst! Scroll to the very bottom to download recipe pdf!
Buon appetito!
x Lolly
Oh my gosh delicious!! And Oh to be a young Italian eating spaghetti! I used to eat greasy, cheesy chips after my nights out.
And I hope you are feeling better now!
Really enjoyed this recipe, Lolly! I was going to cheekily ask if it had to be made at midnight, but you answered that question and now I can't get this image of young and attractive Italians hanging out in their kitchen laughing and drinking wine and making midnight spaghetti. Love it!
Also, great tip that the pasta water has to be salty like the sea. Imma remember that one!