Pasta sauces help to enliven the taste of even the most boring pasta on your plate. Of all the sauces one can use for making pasta, garlic and oil sauce is the easiest to make and the most aromatic.
The quality of the ingredients you use for the sauce will make a whole lot of difference to the flavor of your pasta. The garlic cloves should be plump and void of brown spots or soft sides, and they should not be sprouted. Choose between the American, Elephant, or Italian variety. Garlic is enriched with important heart healthy compounds, like manganese, selenium, vitamin B6, and vitamin C.
The olive oil you use should be of high quality, check for any rancidity traces. Rancid olive oil becomes toxic when heated. Pasta sauce recipes always call for extra virgin olive oil. It contains a large amount of monounsaturated fatty acids like oleic and linoleic acid. It keeps heart diseases at bay by reducing LDL cholesterol and raising HDL cholesterol levels.
Fresh green herbs like parsley should be used. Parsley, besides being rich in vitamin A, folate, potassium, and calcium it contains three times more vitamin C than oranges, and twice as much iron as spinach. For your pasta sauce, select garden fresh parsley. As for your salt, make sure it’s free-flowing, and the pepper freshly grounded.
Garlic and Olive Oil Pasta Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil, ½ cup
- Garlic, 6 cloves (peeled and chopped)
- Fresh parsley, ½ cup (chopped)
- Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste
Directions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan.
- Add chopped garlic and stir fry until it turns golden brown, but be careful, and do not let it burn.
- Remove from the flame and add parsley, salt, and pepper to taste.
- Immediately pour over pasta and toss it, till the dish is coated properly with the sauce.
Olive oil and Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce Recipe
- Garlic, 1 pod
- Olive oil, 1 tsp,
- Heavy cream, 1 cup
- Parmesan cheese, ¼ cup (grated)
- Fresh thyme, 1 tbsp. (chopped)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Place cloves with peel intact in a casserole dish, slit length wise.
- Drizzle the olive oil over the garlic, and sprinkle with thyme and a pinch of pepper.
- Cover the casserole with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven set to 350ºF, till the garlic turns golden in color.
- Remove from the oven, and cool it completely.
- In another saucepan, mash the roasted garlic, stir in the heavy cream and put it back on the burner on low flame.
- Simmer the mix, until the consistency has slightly reduced and thickened.
- Stir in the cheese, once it melts, remove from heat and season the sauce. Pour over the pasta.
While one is preparing the sauce as a part of the various Italian recipes, bear two things in mind- first cook the pasta and keep it ready, and second pour the sauce immediately and avoid cooling and reheating it.