3-INGREDIENT SPAGHETTI

I look at recipes all day everyday. It comes with the job, and I don’t mind it most of the time.

Because of this, I’ve tried a lot of fads, food trends, and products. Including recipes with things like “30 minute” or “x-Ingredient” in the title.

Most of the time, these are failures. You can’t create a recipe and know how long it will take everyone who sees it, and most of the time if it only has a few ingredients, it will be lacking in flavor. So I tend to skip those kinds of recipes.

But I made this spaghetti for my husband a week ago even though I didn’t feel like making anything. It took me literally 5 minutes to make, but I had the pasta cooked in the fridge. And it truly was pretty satisfying for something that quick. If you cook too much spaghetti, this is a great way to use it all up.

There’s a secret (well, two actually, but I’ll get to that) and it’s Ava Jane’s Kitchen Hot Roasted Garlic. If you’ve never had this, it’s pretty much red pepper flakes but amplified. It’s spicy, salty, with a mellow garlic background. It’s enough to turn a bowl of plain noodles into dinner, promise.

The other secret is not really a secret if you cook pasta, but I feel it has to be said — salt your pasta water. Not with like a tiny pinch of salt, but like a big handful of salt for a pound of pasta. You think you can make up for the seasoning after the fact, but you just can’t. When you salt your water, you’re infusing the pasta with the salt, so every single bite is flavorful. You cannot get that level of flavor from adding salt before eating. And when you are only using two other ingredients — Ava Jane’s Kitchen Avocado Oil and Hot Roasted Garlic, you really want to make sure your pasta is packed with flavor before you start.

Note: I added parsley at the end, but only for the photograph. While it does add a bit of brightness to the dish, it’s not a necessary ingredient for a quick dinner that tastes good.