Spaghetti Aglio e Olio for Food n Flix

This months Food n Flix is hosted by Cam of Culinary Adventures with Camilla.  Food n Flix is a wonderful club in which the host chooses a movie of their choice.  You watch the movie, cook a meal inspired by the movie and then blog about the movie and then inform Cam that you are participating so she can link your post up with the rest of them at round up time.  You can learn all you need to know right here, and you still have tons of time because deadline for submission is not until April 28th.

Cam chose a great movie for this month too.  Chef is a star studded movie starring Jon Favreau as Carl Casper, an executive chef in a high end restaurant who is stuck in a rut and given no creative outlet from the restaurant owner played by Dustin Hoffman.  Casper has wonderful ideas and great culinary skills but Hoffman only has eyes for the bottom line and does not believe you should argue with success.

Against his better judgement and at Hoffman's direction, Casper serves a food critic blogger the tried and true recipes that have been served by the restaurant for the past 10 years.  This results in the critic played by Oliver Platt giving a terrible review and tweeting about his disappointment in Casper who he had previously called the best up and coming chef in the area.  Casper, who knows nothing about twitter, responds and the argument immediately goes viral.  Casper invites the critic back and plans a stellar meal for him but again comes to loggerheads with Hoffman and ends up losing his job.

Casper with nothing left to lose, accompanies his ex-wife (Sofia Vergera) and their son (Emjay Anthony) to Miami where he embarks on a new culinary career and finds not only his creative outlet but rediscovers that serving people, sharing times with family and friends and enjoying life is more important than any job in the world.

This is a fun movie that is filled with food of every shape, size, description and culture.  The hardest part isn't finding something to make but whittling the choices down to a few dozen and eventually to just one.

My favorite scenes in the movie were when Casper would cook at home for family and friends making ordinary, every day dishes....extraordinary.  A grilled cheese sandwich oozing and golden brown for his son and my favorite scene of all....when Casper makes a lovely and comforting bowl of pasta aglio e olio for the hostess of the restaurant played by Scarlett Johansson.

This is the dish I was inspired to make in honor of this movie.  Pasta Aglio e Olio is a wonderful, comforting easy dish to throw together and I can see a chef coming home after a long day in the kitchen and making this for someone dear to them.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

1 lb dried spaghetti noodles

1/3 c. olive oil

6 t. minced garlic

1/4 t. crushed red pepper

1 t. salt

1/2 c. fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 c. shredded parmesan, asiago, romano cheese blend

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil and cook the pasta per package directions, reserving 1 1/2 c of the cooking water before draining.

While the pasta is cooking, place a large skillet over low heat.  Add the olive oil, garlic and crushed pepper and cook slowly for a few minutes.  Add the cooking water and a t. of salt simmer until reduced by half. Add the cooked pasta to the skillet along with the parsley and cheese.  Toss to coat and serve with additional cheese for sprinkling.   Print Recipe