Lucky dip - Elizabeth David, simply delicious, and coincidence

I didn't really need to do a lucky dip - I have a number of topics bubbling away in my head, but I just felt like the serendipity of it all. So here we are - Elizabeth David again, in this case in Italy, and recipes for two extremely simple dishes - Spaghetti all'aglio e olio and Fettucine alla marinara. Today I'm just doing the first one because they are both classics and deserve a post each to themselves.

This is the book that really taught me to cook Italian food. I have made so many things from it, including complicated ravioli, tortellini, etc. One thing that I made frequently and which I haven't made for a while is fried pizza. It was yummy and I know that Jill Dupleix has a version, so there's another topic for my expanding list.

The picture is the cover of my rather battered paperback. Like most books of its era there are no glossy photographs, just the recipes and a few line drawings. The cover would be by the same artist I think - Renato Guttoso. And the drawing below is the one that heads up the Pasta Asciutta section. Somehow it's a little bit gruesome and creepy.

In recent years Elizabeth David's editors headed by Jill Norman, have brought out a 'best of' book called At Elizabeth David's Table. If you haven't got it, go out and buy it now. And in there you will find the recipe for spaghetti all'aglio e olio complete with a modern photograph in the rustic style. as shown below.

I guess you could say it doesn't look all that exciting, and here I have a confession to make - I have never actually made or tasted this dish, although I often make a variation - well it's quite a variation since it's butter and chilli rather than garlic and oil. But when I've finished this post you might see the connection.

All of the chefs whose versions I looked at raved about it. And I will give you a few variations because like all these 'super simple' dishes there are almost an infinite number of versions.

The think about Elizabeth David's version is that it's almost like a little essay, so I will give it in full here. She was writing this in 1954 - barely post war - well I suppose almost ten years after the war, but it took Europe a long time to recover, and Italy had horrendous inflation at some point. Though that might have been before the war (how ignorant I am - was it one of the reasons for Mussolini's rise to power or a result of his rule and the war?).

"Since the cost of living in Italy is very high, many people cannot now afford meat sauces, butter, or even Parmesan with their daily pasta, it is often eaten with no embellishment but oil and garlic. Those who are particularly addicted to garlic will find this dish excellent, others will probably abominate it. It is essential that the oil be olive oil and of good quality. When your spaghetti is cooked, barely warm a cupful of oil in a small pan, and into it stir whatever quantity of finely chopped garlic you fancy. Let it soak in the oil a bare minute, without frying, then stir the whole mixture into the spaghetti. You can add chopped parsley or any other herb, and of course grated cheese if you wish, although the Neopolitans do not serve cheese with spaghetti cooked in this way. If you like the taste of garlic without wishing actually to eat the bulb itself, pour the oil on to the spaghetti through a strainer, leaving the chopped garlic behind."

So there you have it all. A little bit of social history, a little bit of advice about alternatives, and a recipe that is barely there. Which you might find either annoying or charming. And her voice comes through.

Nobody seems to know much about the origins of this dish, though somebody said it was first written down in the 1830s. But I'm willing to bet it's been around as long as spaghetti itself - and incidentally, virtually all the recipes I saw were for spaghetti. I saw linguine suggested somewhere but almost everyone seemed to think it should be a long-form pasta. Elizabeth David mentions Naples in her recipe, though not necessarily as a geographical origin. I have seen Abruzzo suggested and my Italy the Beautiful cookbook seems to think Calabria. So who knows. It's another peasant dish concocted out of almost nothing.

"I think it's safe to claim, [it] is the simplest pantry-staples-only pasta sauce in the entire Italian canon. You don't even need cheese—in fact, some would argue cheese isn't a welcome addition. If you have spaghetti, garlic, salt, and oil, you can make this pasta right now." Serious Eats

The serendipity in my post title comes from a bit of internet browsing about something else (dinner tonight) and I came across an Adam Liew article in which he mentioned spaghetti all'aglio e olio, which is really the reason why I am doing this particular post today. Coincidence - how often it crops up in our lives. If I was superstitious or religious I would say we have no free will and it's all laid out for us.

And before I get on to the variations i have to say that it was mildly surprising who did not have a version - Claudia Roden doesn't mention it in her book on Italy, although it does feature in her Mediterranean Cookery book, where she betrays here Middle-eastern origins and adds a few mint leaves. Jamie Oliver, that great Italiophile also doesn't seem to have one. The one on his website has so many optional extras I don't think it really counts as genuine aglio e olio. Not that it doesn't look good I hasten to say. But my faithful Delia, Robert Carrier and Nigel Slater all do. As do Mietta O'Donnell, Italy the Beautiful and The Silver Spoon.

So what about all those variations? Well like all simple dishes that you vary, you have to ask at what point does it become something else? The most common addition to the oil and garlic seems to be chilli in one form or another - flakes, fresh, sliced or chopped - even bottled. But then there seems to be another name for this dish - either spaghetti, aglio, olio e peperoncino (Mietta O'Donnell) or Spaghetti all'olio, aglio e saetini (Elizabeth David). The parsley is a common addition and that doesn't seem to mean that you need a new name. Sometimes it's cooked with the garlic, sometimes added at the end. But if you add anchovies - which some do - surely you are straying into new territory. And as for the addition of cheese, some do, some don't. Maybe the ban on cheese is a purely regional thing. There is also the question of whether you add some of the pasta water or not. Almost everyone seems to at least suggest that you don't drain the spaghetti too well, but some specifically say to add some of the water.

"As soon as the pasta is just shy of al dente, transfer it to the skillet with the garlic and oil. Then add a few tablespoons of the pasta water and cook it all together over high heat, stirring and tossing rapidly, to emulsify the oil with the starchy pasta water.

It's ready when the sauce reduces to a creamy coating on the noodles. If you over-reduce it and the sauce becomes too oily, you can always add a little more pasta water to get it back where you want it. A drizzle of fresh olive oil reintroduces its uncooked, fruity flavour." Serious Eats

I think the Serious Eats recipe is worth checking out. It has pictures on the various stages and seems pretty basic and authentic.

Delia's version is also pretty authentic - well if you think the chilli is authentic, but she does resist the cheese and the parsley and she does call it Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil and Chilli.

And by the way there seems to be a fair bit of variation about what you do with the garlic - chop or slice, and how much as well, even whether you leave it in or take it out. But that's probably a taste thing. And then Elizabeth David, as we saw, says you can strain the garlic out at the end. But do take care not to burn it - it tastes horrible and it can happen in just a moment. Slow but sure is the thing.

Nigel Slater adds most of the extras, cooks the parsley with the garlic and suggests adding all sorts of other things, including breadcrumbs - I forgot to mention fried breadcrumbs as an optional extra. Italy the Beautiful suggests them too.

Even though Mietta doesn't mention the anchovies in her recipe title, the anchovies are really the thing in her recipe, much more anchovy than garlic in fact , so not really the same thing at all. But I'll include it because it's different and because she does stick to the original name. She says it is from Abruzzo.

125ml olive oil

1 clove garlic

4-5 anchovies

a pinch of oregano

1 small chilli

10g parsley, chopped

600g spaghetti

parsley to garnish

Put the oil into a large frypan, heat and gently fry the whole garlic clove. As soon as the garlic, colours lightly, take it out and put in the anchovies which have been cleaned and chopped finely. Let this cook over a very low heat, stirring the anchovies with a wooden spoon till they become a pulp.

When the anchovies are completely mush, add a pinch of oregano and at the last moment a good piece of chilli and a spoon of finely chopped parsley.

Cook the pasta al dente in a big pot of salted, rapidly boiling water. Drain in a colander. Toss through the sauce and serve immediately into heated bowls. Top with extra parsley.

I think this one really needs a different names - it's so much about the anchovies and not the garlic.

But I'll end with Robert Carrier - the man that people think cooks fancy food - for his recipe is simple, but a tiny bit different - a bit of butter might make all the difference and is somehow more sophisticated. He goes for the cheese and parsley though.

Spaghetti with oil and garlic sauce

500g spaghetti

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

Butter

Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until tender, but not mushy. Drain and keep warm.

Simmer finely-chopped garlic and parsley in butter and olive oil until sauce is hot, but do not allow garlic to take on colour.

Add drained spaghetti to oil and garlic mixture and stir until thoroughly moistened, adding a little more warm oil if necessary. Season to taste with salt and freshly-ground black pepper.

Turn spaghetti into a heated serving dish, sprinkle with freshly-grated Parmesan, dot with butter and serve immediately.

It all sounds delicious and is so, so simple. No need for all that pre-packaged stuff. Though I guess it's probably not all that nutritious. Jamie's recipe added some spring greens and I guess the anchovies and/or cheese would add protein. But then, as I say, we are into something different. So let's just go for simply delicious and not worry about nutrition too much.

Thank you Elizabeth David. Tomorrow - Fettucine alla Marinara - not quite what you think.