Buzz
While pasta sauce is often linked to long hours of simmering, seasoning, and tasting, some sauces are effortless, requiring minimal work. Starting with a powerful ingredient, like roasted garlic, makes it so you don't have to do much.
Lately, I've been obsessed with spreading roasted garlic on everything. It's easy to do, but pasta strands are too delicate to handle a direct smear. The answer is to blend a bunch of soft, sweet roasted garlic cloves with olive oil (and a little pasta water) to create a sauce. Add salt to taste, and you're done. (This is quite similar to aglio e olio, but with a deeper roasted taste and creamier texture.)
This sauce is versatile and can be customized. Swap the oil for something like pistachio oil, add parmesan, fresh pepper, chili flakes, or crispy pancetta. But the basic sauce stands strong on its own, and surprisingly, it's vegan. It does require a lot of garlic (several heads), but that’s not a problem for me, since most recipes don't use enough garlic. Here's what you need to make it:
4 (very) large or 6 small heads of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil for each head of garlic
Half a pound of dried spaghetti or angel hair
Fine sea salt
Preheat your oven to 425℉, peel off the outer paper from the garlic, and cut the tops off to expose the cloves. Drizzle with a little olive oil, tap the garlic heads on the counter, and wrap them in foil. Roast them until golden (not burnt) and your kitchen smells heavenly. After 30 minutes, check by gently peeling back the foil, and continue checking every five minutes or so until they’re done. You can use a towel to avoid touching the foil, though I just use my hands as aluminum cools quickly.
Extract the roasted garlic cloves using a pickle fork for ease, then place them in a food processor with one tablespoon of olive oil for every head you roasted. Avoid adding any burnt garlic bits to prevent bitterness. Add a couple of generous pinches of salt, then blend into a smooth puree. Taste and adjust the salt to your preference.
Boil a large pot of salted water and cook your pasta as instructed on the package. Once the pasta is al dente (a bit firm), transfer it to a large mixing bowl using tongs. Toss it with the garlic puree, adding pasta water as needed to help the flavors combine. When the garlic sauce is evenly distributed, plate the pasta and garnish with anything you like. I love adding chili flakes and parmesan, but next time, I might try it with fried capers—I do have a soft spot for fried capers.
