Anchovy Pasta
This dish is for the rainy day. The blue day. The cry your eyes out day. The day when you want soup. The day when you break up with someone. The day when you need to just BE. Anchovy pasta is the panacea for spiritual, mental, and emotional illness. It is magic.
Boil spaghetti in salted water — use a shallow pot, you want the water to be as starchy as possible. The water must taste like the sea (lots of salt). Boil for 8 minutes. Anything longer than that, you are a heathen, the dish will not be al dente in the end. Speaking of pasta making violations, do not break the spaghetti in half. Please.
Turn off the heat. Drain the pasta but keep a cup of the pasta water. Set aside. Pasta should not be fully cooked at this point. Again, you are a heathen if it is already al dente. We will cook this spaghetti again and you do not want mushy pasta.
Warm olive oil over medium heat (do not put on high heat for goodness sakes, you will burn the olive oil to oblivion) and when tiny bubbles appear, add freshly minced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. You do not want the garlic to brown. You want it to be delicate minced garlic dancing with the olive oil bubbles.
Add minced anchovies. We don’t want anchovy chunks. You want the anchovy so minced that it’s mushy baby food consistency.
Add red pepper flakes.
Add pasta to olive oil. Add pasta water (to taste). Toss with chopped parsley.
Garnish with GRATED Parmigiano reggiano (please don’t use that Kraft parmesan).
Eat. Cry. Love Anchovy Pasta.
Optional: Add a squeeze of LEMON (not lime) and grate lemon peel on top to garnish.
Another option: Add capers at step #5.
Another option: Add clams to this dish to make a spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams, duh).
Another option: Garnish with toasted panko bread crumbs.
Final option: Twirl the pasta on a chopstick or long utensil when plating. Video directions below