Aligo Olio

I've been very lazy about cooking recently. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's taking care of Bonnie, or maybe I've been spending way too much time playing Final Fantasy XII. A few days ago, Wid's mom, her brother's family, and I went to Warung Italia for lunch. I like that place because of the nice food at a very reasonable price. I got the gnocchi which was ok, but I still like their selection of canteen food more, like the crepe in bachmael sauce and the potato salad. While we were eating, mami commented that the aligo olio tasted different from other Italian restaurants in the area, and she wondered out loud if we can make this at home. I'm no expert on aligo olio have never heard of this dish until I came to Bali, but from the look and taste of it, it seems like it's prepared in a similar way as spaghetti carbonara (heat the "sauce," cook the pasta, and combine).

Yesterday for lunch I decided to try out this dish. Our cook actually makes a decent version already, but I wanted to experiment. I wanted to see if what I deducted based solely on my observations would produce the same result. While I waited for the water to boil to cook the spaghetti, I minced a lot of garlic and then cooked the garlic and a bit of the hot pepper flakes in olive oil and butter until it was golden brown in a wok. I guess it was like deep frying garlic, like what we do with fried shallots... Once the spaghetti was cooked and drained, I combined the spaghetti with the garlic and oil mix, add more pepper flakes and salt, and cooked the pasta on low to medium heat. I then transferred everything to a pre-warmed bowl.

Wid and mami seemed to like the dish. Mami thought it was very garlicky, which is what she wanted. Wid thought it tasted different but better than the ones in the restaurants. I told him I used butter. Hehe. Mami said next time I should try soaking the garlic in oil for a few hours before cooking for better fragrance.