I love Spaghetti Aglio Olio. This version differs quite a bit from that as it adds anchovies to the mix. There are still things Id like to improve with this recipe, but the current state is a good base recipe.

Ingredients

• 150g pasta from 150
• 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 2 pcs anchovies (40g) roughly chopped
• 1-2 dried thai chilies (1g)
• 1/2 lemon grass stick (sliced lengthwise)
• 3 pcs of ground szechuan pepper
• 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

Instructions

Heat up water and cook your pasta once its boiling. In the meanwhile put some oil in a pan and add all other ingredients other than the oyster sauce, heat it up and fry it for a bit over low heat. Note that the main goal is to not burn the garlic. Though with the anchovies it is not easy as you can neither smell nor see it. Let the pan heat up and keep it on lowest heat. Fry it for about 1 minute and remove it from the heat (that part can be crucial if your stove stores a lot of heat). Remove the lemon grass sticks, mix in the oyster sauce and add the pasta. Do NOT heat the whole thing up in the pan, or you might end up burning the garlic! (Don’t ask how I found that out..)

Next Time…

• Reduce the amount of anchovies a bit, down to 40g (from 60g) Done. Updated recipe.
• The spiciness was great on this one. It had a good kick, but was not too much. However, the recipe does miss some kick in flavor. Lemon, lime or basil might be a good addition next time added before serving. Just something refreshing. The szechuan pepper and lemon grass were great, but still the certain extra was missing.