Cooking is not my thing. I don’t really like it, and I’m not very good at it. And the people I cook for are unappreciative little pishers with palates the size of a Skittle.
Except for my husband. He grew up in a home where, while not gourmet, each meal consisted of a protein and a gazillion sides – starches and veggies. Then he married me. I’ve tried, and Matt graciously eats whatever I cook without complaint. But even he has his limits.
One night when we were bright and shiny newlyweds, I tried to cook a garlic and oil pasta dish. I had made it before, and it was simple but yummy. On this evening, however, I was in the middle of cooking when I realized I was out of red pepper flakes. So being the Julia Child that I am, I figured I could substitute black pepper for red pepper. Right?
Keep in mind, this was in 1996ish, with no smartphone or iPad to quickly look up substitutions. But I could do this. I thought that black pepper wasn’t as spicy as red pepper, so surely I needed more than the quarter teaspoon called for in the recipe. And because I’m an idiot, I used a lot more. I can’t remember exactly how much, but when I poured the garlic and oil (and pepper) mixture over the spaghetti, the pasta became black. Hmm – this may not be good, but at this point I’m all in.
Matt eyed his plate warily, taking in the lengths of pasta completely coated in black pepper. Without saying a word, he twirled the noodles around his fork, and fearlessly put it in his mouth. Reassured, I took a bite and my mouth instantly became hotter than the cast of Magic Mike. Clearly black pepper has more of a kick than I gave it credit for; I threw out my food and told Matt he didn’t have to eat the crap that I lovingly prepared for him. Matt, God bless him, poured Ragu sauce over the peppery pasta in an attempt to salvage the meal and my feelings. Nope, still ridiculously peppery. But I loved him for trying, and I still love how he will still eat whatever I cook without complaining.
I screwed up royally, but I still make garlic and oil pasta on a regular basis – sans the black pepper. It is one of the few meals everyone will eat – so I’m sure most normal eaters would too. It’s from the cookbook Cucina Amore by Nick Stellino, and it came with a romantic Italian dinner music CD which I will burn for you for a small fee.
Pasta Aglio Olio e Peperoncino (Garlic and Oil Pasta)
Recipe by Nick Stellino
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
3 quarts of water
1/2 cup olive oil
10 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced as thinly as possible
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I never have this, so I use 3 teaspoons of dried parsley)
1 pound of spaghetti
3 tablespoons grated Romano cheese (I use Parmesan instead)
Bring water to a boil.
Pour oil in saute pan set on medium heat and cook garlic until it starts to sizzle. Watch carefully – this will happen quickly and you don’t want it to burn. Remove from heat and add salt, red pepper flakes and half the parsley.
Add pasta to boiling water and cook until tender. Drain well and return to pot. Pour sauce over pasta, add remaining parsley and cook over medium heat for about three minutes, stirring well to coat the pasta with sauce. Remove from heat, add cheese, and toss.
i’ve totally rinsed pasta and started again..thanks for hooking up to the hump day hook up
My pleasure!
If i don’t have an ingredient for a recipe, I just leave it out and cross my fingers. I’m not brave enough to substitute. At least you tried!
I tried – but I would have been better off leaving it out and crossing my fingers!
Aww God bless Matt. Such a hubby.. 😀 Yeah, don’t sweat it. Now you know you can’t substitute it with a black pepper. Hey, we all make mistakes ayt?
So true! Thanks for commenting.
Men that stay married have learned to chew, swallow, chew, swallow, chew, swallow, and when finished, taste! lol My wife thinks 1 inch pork chops need to be cooked until they reach the thickness of 1/4 inch. One night, while eating, the doorbell rang. After talking to a neighbor for several minutes, she returned to find she couldn’t even cut the chop with a steak knife. I offered her one of my saber saws, but she refused. Now, she’s better at it … as they now come out about 1/2 in thick. Great job!
I had to laugh at your post! That was really all the fault of non-precise language! (When is a pepper not a pepper)And it will be a priceless example for my ESL classes, so thank you on that count too!
Have a good (pepperless) day!
Glad to be of help 🙂
Palates the size of a skittle describes my son perfectly! 🙂
And that’s awesome that Matt tried to save your peppery pasta!
Yeah, he’s a pretty cool guy. Sorry to hear you have a picky eater, too. I just have to believe my son will not be a 30 year old man who only eats waffles and Chik Fil-A.
That sounds delicious! I used to use a lot of those packaged noodle mixes, but we are trying to eat more healthy and this is the type of recipe I need..
It is delicious – as long as you have the right ingredients :). Thanks for visiting!
That sounds like a good recipe. I think I might have tried it with the black pepper, but probably not as much as was used here. Now I have a pasta jones…sounds like a Sunday lunch idea for me.
It’s great for lunch – and I love it reheated too.
Your husband sounds like a trooper…I love how he tried to salvage the meal. If my husband wants a REALLY good meal, he knows what to do: he cooks it himself. 🙂
hilarious dana!! and now i want to see magic mike (again). the good thing about making a disastrous meal is you can always threaten to make it again if they don’t eat what you’ve currently prepared. in my house, it’s crock pot onion soup that i’ll never live down. and no matter how bad my meals are i can always say “cool your jets or i’ll serve you onion soup!”
True – but my kids are the ones who complain, and they did not exist at the time of this cooking fail. Never had your onion soup…
At least we know our sons will eat cereal out of a bowl on the floor!! ; )
Ha – we were just talking about that last night, Amy! But they’ll only eat off the floor while pretending to be bears 🙂
I thought you were going to say it sent you both into a sneezing fit. That old song immediately popped into my head … On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed …
Too bad you didn’t think to give it a quick rinse instead of tossing it. That probably would have gotten rice of most of the pepper, so the Ragu would have worked out. 🙁
Well, that just shows my ignorance in the kitchen, Chris – I never thought of that! Honestly, but that point I just wanted to get the hell out of the kitchen!
Cooking is not my thing either. I’ve managed to burn mashed potatoes before.
I will have to try out this recipe!
It’s super easy, Amber. And while I haven’t burned mashed potatoes, I have burned this pasta. But a little crunch is good, right?
Well now that you put it that way, sounds delicious 😉 Pinning!
My Husby did something like this where he added too much chilli to a con carne and then tried to balance it out by adding extra cocoa powder. By the time he was done, it was utterly inedible and dark brown.
I would have tried to fix it too. You’d think I’d learn. Thanks for commenting!
Thanks Dane, always looking for new recipes.
Sue – sometimes I add shrimp to it – kinda of a butterless shrimp scampi.
I think we have all made mistakes like this and tried to substitute one spice for another. I make a variation on this dish and it is pretty easy to make (so I do love that about this dish). Thanks for sharing anf linking up with us again!! 🙂
Always a pleasure, Janine!