Pasta Aglio, Olio, & Pangrattato

This dish is inspired by my recent trip to London. Along with Dishoom, I discovered several fantastic eateries in the short time I was there and Padella also quickly jumped into my top 10 favorite restaurants abroad.

The pici cacio e pepe was definitely my favorite dish ever, but much more difficult to recreate at home for a couple of reasons. For one, whatever cheese they used was super high quality and v. creamy and delicious and salty and perfect. Secondly, they were able to achieve an idyllic sauce; one that was creamy enough to cling to each piece of hand-rolled pasta but never turned thick or gooey, even as it cooled to room temperature. And lastly, the pasta shape is something I have yet to master; pici is like a hand-rolled fat spaghetti and I think I need to do a little more research before I attempt it on my own. It seems relatively straightforward but I don't want to waste a bunch of semolina by jumping into it without a proper investigation of the technique.

Thus, I'm sharing my version of my second favorite dish: the tagliarini with crispy crunchy breadcrumbs. Padella had two versions on the menu. One was a traditional aglio, olio, e pepperoncino (garlic, oil, and crushed chili) and the other was a version with anchovy butter. I decided to bring the two together into what is a pretty ultimate pantry pasta, except for the fact that this will ideally be put together with fresh homemade pasta.

Ingredients [serves 4]:

breadcrumbs

ciabatta roll

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

pasta

1 lb. fresh tagliarini

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 anchovy fillets

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons crushed pepper flakes
2 tablespoons butter

The first step is to prep the breadcrumbs. Tear the bread into smaller pieces and then pop into a food processor to break it down further. The hand-torn bread is more suitable as croutons, not breadcrumbs. That being said, don't take it too far in the food processor; the crumbs should be pebbly and varied in size.

Spread the breadcrumbs onto a sheet pan and bake in a 200F oven for 10 minutes, just to dry them out a bit. You're not looking for color; just a bit of moisture evaporation.

Grab a skillet and add in a good glug of olive oil, a pat of butter, and minced garlic. Get it heating over medium until the garlic is fragrant but not toasted.

Add the breadcrumbs to the skillet and toss to coat in the garlicky fat. Toast until golden and crisp, stirring constantly to promote even browning. Optionally, add in a little lemon zest right at the end for a bit of brightness.

For the pasta, grab a second skillet and add olive oil, minced garlic, crushed pepper flakes, and a couple of anchovy fillets.

Stir and cook until the anchovies completely dissolve into the oil, the garlic is starting to get lightly browned, and the chili flakes infuse into the oil. That last trait is something you'll notice because the oil will become slightly tinged with red.

Cook the fresh pasta for 3 minutes in salted water, reserve some of the pasta cooking water, and drain and add to the skillet. Toss to coat in the seasoned olive oil, adding enough pasta water to create a creamy sauce and preventing the noodles from clumping and congealing together into one giant mass as it cools. Finish with a pat of butter; this will yield a glossy sauce.

After portioning the pasta into serving bowls, the finishing touch is to garnish with a generous amount of breadcrumbs. You want there to be enough to form a decent mount above the pasta, but not so much that you can't see the swirling noodles underneath.

The contrast of the tender noodles against the aggressively crunchy breadcrumbs is compulsory; this textural juxtaposition is what makes this dish so moreish and special. The pasta is pretty effortless; it's just a bit salty (from the anchovies), a bit spicy (from the crushed pepper flakes), a bit savory (from the garlic) but the resultant dish tastes more complex than you'd expect from a recipe with five ingredients. And when you take that really simple pasta and top it with another pretty simple component just to add some crunch and all of a sudden, you have something really special.

Here's the recipe page: