EMERGENCY PASTA WITH ZOODLES
I grew up eating “Emergency Pasta,” which is the nickname my grandpa Albino gave to the classic recipe more commonly known as aglio, olio, e pepperoncini, which most Italians have in their arsenal of quick recipes. My grandfather referred to it as Emergency Pasta because you always had the ingredients on hand; if someone came over unexpectedly, you could still make them a meal—because no one should ever leave your house hungry. SERVES 4
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
COOK TIME: 5 minutes
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 or 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ hot red pepper, minced (or ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes)
3 or 4 large zucchini, spiralized or julienned into noodles
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
- In a large sauté pan over medium-low heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, and stir it around. Remove from the heat as soon as the garlic becomes fragrant—about 30 seconds—because you don’t want to burn it at all. Add the hot red pepper, and pour the sauce into a serving dish.
- In the same pan over medium heat, sauté the zucchini noodles for 3 to 4 minutes, just until slightly softened. Transfer the noodles to the serving dish, season with salt and pepper, and toss with the sauce.
- Serve immediately.
VARIATION 1 EMERGENCY PASTA WITH CHICKEN: Make this dish a little heartier by adding diced chicken to the pan. Add an extra tablespoon of olive oil and a few more pinches of salt.
VARIATION 2 PESTO ZOODLES: Make the zucchini noodles according to the recipe above, and then dress them with Pesto (here) instead of aglio, olio, e pepperoncini.
