Harvesting A Truckload Of Garlic. Plus A Great Garlic Recipe.

Posted by Dani on July 24, 2014

What happens when a bunch of old Italians get their hands on some land to garden?

Garlic happens. Lots of it.

We snuck off to my parent’s cottage for a little family time this week. It happened to coincide with garlic harvesting time. The whole family pitched in and hauled about 1000 plants out of the ground. That would be about 4 wheel barrows full.

Lots of garlic.

It seems a little excessive, but when you have children and grandchildren to feed, 4 wheel barrows of garlic is just about right.

We celebrated by having one of our staple dishes, Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Pepperoncino – Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Chili Pepper. This is the kind of dish that can be made in a few minutes with ingredients you always have on hand. It’s Italian fast food.

Here’s a recipe if you want to try. You can prep the sauce while the spaghetti boils. Sorry, no photos of the final dish – the pasta was gone before I could grab my camera!

Spaghetti Aglio Olio Pepperoncino
serves 4

1 lb spaghetti
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 hot red peppers, chopped (to taste)
or 1 tbsp red chili flakes
½ cup flat leafed parsley, chopped
salt to taste

Boil pasta in salted water according to directions. In the meantime, saute garlic and chili peppers in olive oil until garlic is golden and soft. Remove from heat. Drain pasta and reserve some of the cooking water.
Toss the pasta with the sauce and add parsley. If the pasta seems a little dry, add a few tablespoons of the reserved cooking water. Enjoy!