The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

and-olive-oil fiend. Feel free to serve it with any shape
you’d like. The key to the recipe is to start with great olive
oil (see “All About Olive Oil,” here) and to treat the garlic
three different ways, first infusing the olive oil with toasted
whole cloves to add sweet depth to the oil, then sautéing
thin slices for small bursts of garlic flavor in the finished
dish, and finally adding minced garlic at the very end for a
spicy current to tie the whole thing together. The layering of
flavors makes for deep, deep garlickiness. To this base, a
pinch of red pepper flakes adds heat, and a handful of
chopped parsley adds grassy freshness.
As for getting the sauce to coat the pasta effectively, that
can be a little trickier. The problem with olive oil is that its
emulsive properties are pretty low: it does not want to bind
with water. And once you add your pasta to it, you end up
with a thin sauce with a greasy oil slick on top.
So what? You might say. Isn’t all the flavor in there
anyway? Well, sort of. The flavor might all be there, but the
real problem is that when the oil and water are separate like
that, they tend to run off the pasta and collect at the bottom
of the bowl. You end up with dry, bland pasta on top and a
wet, soupy mess left over when you’re finished with it.
Indeed, it’s exactly the same as the importance of creating a
good emulsified vinaigrette when you’re making a salad.
Without one, you end up with underseasoned greens and
broken oil and vinegar at the bottom of the salad bowl.
How do you fix it? Easy: a bit of butter. Butter has
properties that allow it to emulsify quite well with water.
What’s more, it acts as a liaison, holding olive oil’s hand
and allowing it to come along for the ride, especially when it