Super Simple #4 - Spicy Pasta with Sage

Pasta is always among my favorites and there's so many types of sauces you can come up with if you don't want to go for a sauce using tomatoes.

Dried chilies, especially those scary thai chilies, are great to spicen up the olive oil. Depending on how spicy you like it, you can cut open the chilies, revealing the seeds, or leave them whole for less spicyness.



for 2 people:

Ingredients:

pasta of your choice
6-8 table spoons extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed
red, dried chilies (amount depends on how spicy you like it)
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 sage leaves, cut into stripes
freshly ground parmesan cheese


Instructions:

In a pot, bring water to a boil. Add salt.

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the chilies. Leave the chilies whole if you'd like to keep it not too spicy, cut them open to reveal the seeds if you're into a spicy sauce. Reduce the heat to medium and add sage and the crushed garlic cloves. Easiest to crush a clove of garlic is to press on it with the flat side of a knife.

If the garlic starts to brown too quick, remove the pan from the heat to not burn the garlic, then reduce the heat. This sauce should simmer for at least 10-15 minutes for all the flavors to mix. Basically, the olive oil will be flavored with the sage, the garlic and the chilies. Cook your pasta accordingly to have them al-dente by the time your sauce is ready.

It's nice if the garlic becomes a bit crispy, same goes for the sage. Crispy is good, burnt is bad.

I like to stir the cooked, drained pasta directly in the skillet with the sauce. That way, you're not wasting any of the wonderfully flavored olive oil.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese on top. You can choose to eat the crushed garlic pieces or not. I usually eat a bit of it and leave some aside to not smell like garlic for the rest of the day.