It’s officially the best day of the year… after Christmas that is. It’s National Spaghetti day! The one day of the year when you can throw your face into bowl after bowl of carbs, with absolutely no shame.
These are some of the yummiest spaghetti dishes around, sure to throw your Italian taste buds into a food frenzy.
Spaghetti with garlic and chilli
Simple but oh so good. All you need is 1 clove of garlic, fresh parsley leaves, olive oil, chilli flakes, a pinch of salt and of course, spaghetti. Ingredients for a serving for 2 people…
- 200g/7oz dried spaghetti
- 1 fat garlic clove
- Handful fresh parsley leaves
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pinches dried chilli flakes
Spaghetti Carbonara
This Italian dish from Rome is made with egg, hard cheese, bacon and pepper and can be cooked in a whole variety of ways, but this is how we like it…
Boil water in a pan with 1 tsp of salt and add the spaghetti. Separately chop the pancetta, finely grate both cheeses and mix them together and beat the eggs into a medium bowl and season with some pepper. Squash the garlic with a knife and fry this with the pancetta (whilst the spaghetti is cooking) and add the butter to this – cook for around 5 minutes, stirring until the pancetta is crispy. At this point take the garlic out of the pan. Then it’s time to drain the spaghetti and add it into the pancetta pan. Pour the eggs and cheese into the spaghetti and mix until thick (but not scrambled), also adding water to keep it saucyyyyyy. Then with a sprinkle of extra cheese and some black pepper your carbonara is ready to go. Ingredients for a serving for 4 people…
- 100g pancetta
- 50g pecorino cheese
- 50g parmesan
- 3 large eggs
- 350g spaghetti (De Cecco is very good)
- 2 plump garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
- 50g unsalted butter
- Maldon salt and freshly grated black pepper
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Spaghetti with broccoli and pesto
This isn’t just a super yummy and easy dish, it’s also 1 of your 5 a day …. Winning! All you need to do is steam some broccoli over a boiling pan for around 6 minutes, then blend this with basil, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to create a delicious pesto/broccoli sauce. Mix this into the cooked spaghetti and add some grated parmesan on top for extra creaminess. Ingredients for a serving for 4 people…
- 300g/10½oz dried spaghetti
- 350g/12oz broccoli (about one head), broken into florets
- 30g/1oz fresh basil leaves
- 30g/1oz Parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to garnish
- ½ garlic clove, finely grated
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Spaghetti Vongole
For all you seafood lovers out there, this classic Italian dish is essentially spaghetti with clams in a white wine sauce … what’s not to love? To whip up this Mediterranean dish you’ll need to wash clams which are opened (the closed ones are not ready to eat) and throw them into a large pan with a lid on to heat them up. Then whilst cooking the spaghetti, put extra virgin olive oil into a pan along with garlic, parsley stalks, dried chilli, chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir this until the garlic starts to colour and then add the claims and wine. Put the lid on the pan for around 4 minutes until the claims start to open. Once the spaghetti is cooked and drained add the clam sauce along with an extra drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of parsley. You may want to serve this with some crusty bread to mop up all the tasty sauce and get into carb overload. Ingredients for a serving for 4 people…
- 1 kg small clams
- 1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 4 cloves garlic
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 250 ml white wine
- 400 g dried spaghetti
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1-2 dried chillies
Spaghetti with tuna, tomato and olives
To whip up this spaghetti delight, heat 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a sauté pan, adding in a teaspoon of chopped chillis, 2 finely cut cloves of garlic and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Meanwhile, cook 500g of spaghetti in boiling salted water. Add 2 tins of drained tuna and some black olives to the tomato sauce along with a sprinkling of salt and black pepper. Once the spaghetti is drained, toss the sauce in and add some fresh mint leaves on top for serving. Ingredients for a serving for 6 people…
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1-2 dried chilles
- 500g of spaghetti
- 2 tins of tuna
- 1 handful of black olives
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh mint leaves