Craving Pasta? 🍽️ Try This Fusion Of Flavors: Spaghetti Aglio E Olio & Tomato And Butter

Like I said in my previous post, I usually keep the preparation simple and the cooking time short when it comes to making my meals. Then there are those rare occasions, when I fancy something that requires a little more effort, like a pasta for instance.

For a while now I've been craving a pasta dish and it didn't matter which one: Alfredo, Carbonara, Macaroni, etcetera. So I checked what I had in my pantry and decided to combine two pasta recipes, which are spaghetti aglio e olio (garlic and oil) and tomato and butter pasta and gave it my own little twist.

I had a packet of 1kg of dried spaghetti and calculated that I only needed half of it, which I cooked al dente in boiling hot water with only a pinch of salt. For later use, I kept the salted water from the spaghetti on the side. Tomatoes, garlic, boneless ham, (gouda) cheese, butter and black olives were removed from the fridge and I picked some basil and oregano from the garden. Olive oil was of course essential and a container of dried oregano was pulled from the pantry.

Because of garlic burning easily, it firstly went into a pan with cool olive oil, to let them get heated up at the same time. During the waiting time, I grated the cheese, because that didn't require my full attention, so that I could intervene in time when the garlic becomes golden brown.

---

Before starting on the second part of my mixed recipe, I let the ham bake a little in its own fat and removed it when browned on the sides. After that I heated butter in the same frying pan and added diced tomatoes to it. I let that simmer a bit, while mushing the tomatoes and put in the olives after it was softened.

Then I added the tomato and butter sauce to the garlic and oil and remember the salty spaghetti water? I scooped three to four ladles of that water into the sauce and mixed in the ham and added salt to taste.

After that the spaghetti went in and I added the fresh green herbs (oregano and basil) and some of the grated cheese. All the ingredients got blended together and after tasting, I added a little of the dried oregano to taste.

---

In the middle of the process, I was a little worried that I made too much sauce, but the pasta soaked it all up during the blending of the ingredients. When I was done, I garnished the hot out of the pan pasta with more grated cheese and added some pepper flakes (optional) to it.

---

And that was my attempt at fusing two pasta dishes and giving it my own little twist and I've got to say that the amount of preparation, work and focus were worth it. My folks even got to enjoy it, so it's definitely a recipe worth trying out. Would you try your hand at this recipe? If so, I'm looking forward to reading about it 🤓.