For dinner tonight, I cooked Penne Aglio Olio e Peperoncino pasta – my favourite pasta sauce. It’s a very light and simple meal really – I got hooked after I was introduced to it many many years ago at Alessandro Nannini Café in Plaza Senayan Jakarta. I remember that when I was still working at Citibank, some of us used to catch a cab down to Plaza Senayan for lunch. Those were the days when we could pick one fancy place after the other just for lunch – a hotel restaurant or café – because we could. I suppose if I still worked in Jakarta now, I would probably still lead such a lifestyle – or even worse, if I still worked in Singapore — ahh, the days of $75 champagne breakfast (so because I don’t drink much champagne, I ended up paying $75 for a glass of champagne that I appreciated half-heartedly plus the world’s most expensive omelette and brekfast buffet … hahahaha). 😆
Anyway, I digress … I have been wanting to cook pasta at home, so I researched for the most convincing recipe online – however, all of them are pretty similar: pasta, garlic, chili, parsley, and olive oil. So I ended up improvising my recipe – I slow-fried the thinly-sliced garlic and sliced chili that had been de-seeded in virgin olive oil, and afterwards, I also put some chicken breast pieces and I fried them until the chicken was cooked. I used about 4 bits of garlic (excuse me for using the improper unit of garlic – I don’t know what the proper word that I should use!), and about 3 medium-sized red chilis. At the same time I cooked my penne al dente in a pot of salted water for 14 minutes. I then put the penne into the frying pan, put some salt and pepper to taste and as the last ingredient, I put the coarsely chopped parsley and an extra dollop of virgin olive oil before I finally turned the stove off. As the last touch, some parmesan on top. The result was va bene! The chili gave the pasta an extra bite – maybe I could lessen the amount of chili next time, but as it is, the recipe is great too. It should serve about 3-4 people. Something really simple to make, not too stuffy and tastes wonderful!
Anyway, I’m writing this in my living room and I’m about to call it a day – feeling sleepy! A new week’s calling me already!