Garlic pasta with breadcrumbs

Google is a wondrous thing! I hate waste and had some bread that was on its last legs and some parsley that wasn’t going to see out the week. Having decided that parsley on toast wasn’t going to make the most pleasant of lunches, I did a quick internet search and found a number of Italian recipes that used both ingredients. Most used standard breadcrumbs, but one recipe that stuck out suggested coarsely blitzing the bread in a processor (so that you have a mixture of fine breadcrumbs and larger, almost small crouton sized pieces) which is the route I went down. I’d implore you to do the same because, once toasted in the garlic oil, the contrast of garlic breadcrumbs with the large, crispy pieces is a joy to behold!

Ingredients

• 12½ ounces / 350g spaghetti
• 2¾ fluid ounces / 80ml garlic oil
• 2 thick slices of stale brown bread (around 3½ ounces / 100g)
• 2 lemons
• 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley

Method

Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan according to packet instructions.

Put the bread in a processor and blitz until you have roughly chopped breadcrumbs.

Zest and juice both lemons.

Warm 1 fluid ounce / 30ml (2 tablespoons) of the garlic oil in a large frying pan before tossing in the lemon zest and stirring for about 10 seconds. Throw in the breadcrumbs and toast, stirring constantly to make sure they don’t catch.  Once they’re a nice golden colour, decant into a bowl to cool.

Drain the pasta once cooked, keeping 3 tablespoons of the pasta water in the saucepan. Put the remaining oil into the saucepan, along with the lemon juice and good bit of seasoning.

Return the drained pasta to the saucepan and mix everything together.

Combine the chopped parsley with the breadcrumbs and add this mixture to the pasta, stirring well to ensure everything is combined.

Trivia

The name parsley comes from the Greek word petros meaning stone because it was often found growing among stones. Parsley was one of the first European herbs introduced to North America by the New World colonists.