Pasta Aglio E Olio recipe

This post has been sponsored by Carapelli®. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This Pasta Aglio E Olio recipe features a light olive oil-based sauce, garlic, a good dose of red pepper for a spicy kick, sharp and salty Parmesan cheese, and rich, salty olives. Simple ingredients, but big flavor!

Tell me if your family is as divided as we are about pasta. You’re probably not, but let me paint you a picture.

I’ve talked about this a lot in the past, but you may remember (or if you’re new here) my S.O. is 100% Italian. He has strong opinions on Italian food, and it was a HUGE part of his upbringing.

You would think that he would love any and all pasta, and he does, but he has a strong preference for angel hair pasta. It is the ONLY pasta that he buys if I send him to the store on his own. I, on the other hand, am basically 0% Italian, and I love ALL pasta. I don’t discriminate. I have personal faves, but I really love all the different shapes and sizes. I think they all taste different! One day I’m in the mood for the texture of angel hair pasta, and another day I’m in the mood for penne or shells. My top favorites are fettuccine and orecchiette though. He will rarely stray from angel hair.

It’s my understanding that Aglio e Olio is traditionally made with spaghetti, but I deviated from that because fettuccine is my #1, and it’s just what I was in the mood for. So there you go. It’s really all about the sauce with Aglio e Olio anyway, so that’s what matters. More on that sauce later.

My S.O.’s family put together a family cookbook a few years back, and we got a copy of it. It’s one of the most treasured cookbooks in my collection, and I like to experiment with its recipes as often as I can. I was flipping through recently and asked him about this Pasta Aglio e Olio recipe. I’d never heard of this dish in my entire life!

By the way, 7 years of dating, and I still learn about Italian dishes that I’ve never heard of before. Until we started dating, I had no idea what Pasta Fagioli or Braciole were. Now I can’t imagine my life without those foods. Or my S.O., I suppose!!

Anyway, I asked him about that Pasta Aglio e Olio recipe, and he started going on about how much his mother loves it, and she makes it for his step-father a lot, who also loves it, and that its a really simple, quick, and easy recipe, with a light olive oil-based sauce.

I was intrigued, and had to try it! Yet another dish that I’d never heard of, and I needed to know about it. Now I love Pasta Aglio e Olio, and I’m happy to have a new recipe in my stash. The sauce is primarily olive oil, but it’s complemented by quite a lot of garlic, a good dose of red pepper for a spicy kick, sharp and salty Parmesan cheese, and rich, salty olives. Simple ingredients, but big flavor.

This Pasta Aglio e Olio recipe is so simple and fuss-free to make. Each ingredient plays such an instrumental part. Although there aren’t a ton of ingredients, they’re all well-represented, and it matters to use good quality ingredients.

Of utmost importance when making this Pasta Aglio e Olio recipe: high-quality olive oil. That is something that my S.O. and I agree on: high-quality olive oil is essential. We are a die-hard united front as far as that’s concerned, even if we like different types of pasta! But it’s super important to Pasta Aglio e Olio because the olive oil serves as the base to this recipe’s sauce.

We were shopping at Publix over the weekend, and I saw this Carapelli® Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the shelves. The packaging was so beautiful and elegant. Publix carried both Carapelli® Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Carapelli® Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Of course, I wanted to try both. I used the organic version in this recipe, but we sampled the unfiltered version with bread, and they’re both incredibly delicious.

They have a pure, clean, and smooth flavor.  The beautiful bottles really drew me in when I was surveying my options at Publix. After tasting both oils, I knew that this Pasta Aglio e Olio recipe would be the best one to highlight Carapelli® olive oil most prominently. Olive oil is such an important ingredient to Pasta Aglio e Olio, and it really allows the Carapelli® olive oil to shine.

I hope you’ll try this dish. It’s simple and easy, but very elegant and flavorful. Because it only has a few ingredients, you want to make sure that you select the best ingredients, and this Carapelli® Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil was an integral part of the irresistibility of this Pasta Aglio e Olio recipe!