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1
Fill a pot with water (about 1 litre).
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2
Add in 1 tablespoon of table salt to season the water.
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3
When the water is boiling, add in the spaghetti.
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4
Stir the spaghetti occasionally to prevent them from sticking to each other.
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5
When the spaghetti is cooking, heat the olive oil in a frying pan over low heat.
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6
Add in the diced garlic and let them cook gently, stirring frequently.
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7
When the garlic is turning a light golden brown, push the garlic aside (away from the heat source) and add in the chili padi (if using) and prawns.
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8
Cook gently until the prawns are pink in colour on one side.
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9
Flip the prawns and continue cooking till pink throughout and thoroughly cooked.
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10
Take care not to let the garlic burn!
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11
Remove the frying pan from the heat.
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12
By now, the spaghetti should be al dente do a taste test and see if its the consistency you like.
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13
Scoop out some pasta water and drain the pasta.
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14
Immediately add the pasta in to the frying pan with the garlic, prawns and chili padi.
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15
Add in the chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper.
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Toss the pasta and the other ingredients together, adding a little pasta water if necessary to moisten the dish (you wouldnt want to flood the pasta!)
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17
and taste to see if it needs additional seasoning.
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18
Scoop the pasta and the prawns into serving plates and serve immediately.
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19
Notes:.
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20
To cook an aglio e olio, prepare everything before starting to cook.
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21
The garlic requires a lot of attention so it may be difficult to multi-task while cooking the garlic.
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22
A rule that I used when cooking pasta for aglio e olio: 1 litre of water to 1 tablespoon of table salt.
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This will salt the pasta well and most of the time I didnt need to add additional salt to the overall dish.
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Do note that this rule applies only for aglio e olio dishes!
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25
Other pasta dishes Ill only use 1/2 tablespoon of table salt.
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26
Im not a huge fan of chili so this dish is not very spicy (plus I always removed the chili seeds, which is the main source of heat for chili).
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27
If you like the dish to be extra hot, do use more chilli than specified.
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28
The most important thing: trial and error!
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29
My pasta requires about 8-10 minutes to cook, so I started to cook the garlic only after I added the pasta into the hot water.
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30
If your pasta requires a longer time to cook, start cooking the garlic later and vice versa.
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31
If the garlic is already cooked but the pasta is not ready, remove the frying pan from the heat and reheat the garlic gently when the pasta is almost cook.
