The Chronicles of Erin's Aglio Olio

How i got closer to actualizing my dream, tiny and achievable as it is.

Prep stage: Get ready all the ingredients (which means run over to Grandpa's to get the garlic and thank him for going to the market early in the morning to get the capsicum for me).

 Once i'm done running, wash the capsicum and chop it into wedges (but first, googling the methods on how to chop a capsicum cos i have no idea how to do that). Repeat for the onion (the googling, i mean). Then proceed to chop up onion.

And we're at the part i'm most familiar with : Pasta! Boiling the pasta is easy (just as long as i remember to undercook it because i wil be cooking it again later). I've learnt that boiling the pasta with lots of salt in the water adds to the taste, so i did that.

Next up: Prepare the olive oil, the spices and other fiddly bits to chuck in for taste, like oregano here...

The chopped garlic from grandpa's kitchen...

And mexican chilli powder.

That's mostly what i would put in for aglio olio, the rest (like what meat you wanna put in) is really up to you. But in this instance, i put in bacon (which was meant for my Grandma, but well... too late. I only found out after i'd cooked it).

Toss in the olive oil (i was very generous here) and the garlic. Chuck it around the pan for a bit, then toss in the rest of the stuff (capsicum, onions, chilli powder, meat of choice). You can dump in a little bit of wine if you like. Apparently it makes it smell nicer.  

After everything sort of smells nice, toss the spaghetti in and again chuck it around the pan. (Don't chuck too hard, cos i did, and spaghetti went flying everywhere. Also, dropping the thing you use to chuck the food around the pan with does not help matters here.)

Well, if you're lucky, it'll turn out okay. Not exactly fantastic, but edible and close enough to the actual thing.

If you're lucky, you'll have a good guinea pig too, who'll tell you that for a first timer, your aglio olio is quite good *grin*. Oh yeah, add parmesan! (Not the whole dispenser - that's way too much, as my guinea pig discovered) Just a tablespoon full is good enough, or up to your taste really.

Lastly, please remember to clean up. Mums and Dads don't usually appreciate us using their utensils and kitchen then not having the decency to clean it up =P