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Midnight Spaghetti
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Midnight Spaghetti

Olive oil, garlic, capers, anchovy fillets, red pepper flakes, Parmesan and parsley create a simple, lively sauce for late-night pasta.
Course Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine Italian
Servings 2

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound dry spaghetti (see Kitchen Notes)
  • salt (see Kitchen Notes)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • 4 oil-packed anchovy fillets, rinsed and roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon capers, drained (and roughly chopped, if large)
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (see Kitchen Notes)
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Parmesan (see Kitchen Notes)

Instructions

  • Start a pot of water to cook the pasta. Prep the remaining ingredients while you wait for it to come to a boil. Salt the water and start the pasta. Cook it according to package directions for al dente—depending on the brand, it should take 8 to 10 minutes.
  • When the pasta goes in the water, heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over a medium-low flame. Add the garlic and stir to coat with oil. Add the anchovies, capers and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. If the garlic starts to brown, reduce heat to low—you just want the flavors to combine and the anchovies to melt into the sauce. Turn off the heat and wait for the pasta to finish cooking.
  • Drain pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup pasta water. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce in the skillet and toss to combine, adding a little pasta water if it seems dry—I added about 3 tablespoons. Add parsley and toss to combine.
  • Divide between 2 plates and season with freshly ground black pepper. Grate some Parmesan or Pecorino Romano over the plates and serve.

Kitchen Notes

Pick your pasta, but wisely. I put spaghetti in the name for a reason (some call this midnight pasta). I like the honest, humble heft of spaghetti for this dish. You can do spaghettini if you want something a little thinner, but don't do cappelini for this. In the other direction, linguine would be okay. Don't do short or tubular pasta for this—it just wouldn't be right.
Easy on the salt. You'll note that we've separated it out from the rest of the ingredients, pairing it with the pasta. You only need to salt the cooking water. The anchovies, capers and grated cheese will deliver all the salt you need for the sauce.
Don't touch that heat dial—too much, anyway. The half-teaspoon of red pepper flakes gives midnight spaghetti a needed spicy kick, especially if you're eating it at midnight. You can dial it down if you're especially heat sensitive, but don't leave it out.
Cheese is not optional. Some recipes claim that it is—I disagree, unless you are indeed cooking at midnight and it turns out you're out of cheese.