I really like cream and oil-based pastas, the fattier the better. So I decided to try my hand at an olive oil sauce. It seemed fairly simple-just add olive oil and some herbs to cooked pasta and toss to coat. And that's exactly what I did the first time I made it. Wow, was that a disaster of unknown proportions, not to mention a waste of resources. It was basically like dunking a piece of rotini in olive oil and sprinkling salt on it. Not so good.
I tried to improve it by adding vegetables like zucchini, carrots, and roma tomatoes. Oh, and our good friend garlic. That didn't help. The above picture is somewhere in between nasty and edible... if enough parmesan cheese was on top. Then, I discovered what was wrong.
This is common knowledge to most people, but I stupidly didn't realize that one should slightly sautee the garlic in the olive oil, then add veggies, then add the cooked pasta. Wow, what a difference that makes. Along with some Italian seasoning or a combo of basil, parsley, and thyme, it tastes just fine.
These days, instead of rotini, I use either spaghetti or linguine, but subtract the vegetables. Because zucchini is fairly expensive in Korea and the pasta finally tastes fine on its own, I don't bother with sprucing it up much. It basically takes only 11 minutes too, depending on the cooking time of the pasta!
P.S. I also add butter to the olive oil. Why? Cuz I love me some fat.
