This is another of my former colleague and friend Joe Bursell’s recipes, a really tasty pasta dish, with simple ingredients, not many utensils used, easy techniques
What you will need to make the Linguine in Hot Oil
Long pasta- spaghetti is good; linguine is better- if you’re using long macaroni it needs to be really thin
2 cloves of garlic
1 tin anchovies in oil
1-3 red chillis- medium heat, its for a spike, not to overwhelm the dish
Ordinary olive oil- Grade C or lower
Sea salt / flake salt /grey salt
Cracked white pepper
Fresh basil
Fresh mint
How to make the Linguine in Hot Oil
Make a paste with the garlic and some salt- use the back of a sharp-blade knike to work it into a paste on a chopping board.
Finely dice the chilli- the smaller the better, it needs to be distributed well throughout the dish.
Using a big heavy bottomed frying pan slowly warm through the whole tin of anchovies- oil and all.
Use a broad wooden spoon or spatula to mush it into an emulsion.
Add the fresh garlic paste and raise the heat a notch so that the oil begins to bubble/fizz lightly.
Add the chilli.
Now, add the olive oil a little at a time- you are looking to create a hot oil dressing for your pasta, rather than a coherent sauce.
Cook the pasta til its just there- a little bite is great as you want to taste the pasta in the finished dish, so it needs to maintain a bit of resistance.
Drain the pasta well. Because this isn’t a ragu it is better to use pasta that is dry enough that it allows the hot oil dressing to permeate into it a little.
Tip the pasta into the hot oil dressing and stir through, so that every ingredient has touched every other ingredient.
Chiffonade equal handfuls of the basil and mint together – to taste (be warned though, too much mint will bugger it completely!)
Serve the pasta topped with a sprinkling of the fresh herb mix, crunchy salt and white pepper.
Drink with a cheap chianti- the salt and the chilli are made for it!
I'm an online marketer, specialising in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I write for theMediaFlow Search Engine Marketing blog, write my own personal blog covering online marketing and what's going on in my life and manage and contribute to a food blog.
