This is the pasta that lives at the intersection of "nothing in the fridge" and "everyone's hungry in twenty minutes." It's also the perfect recipe to run through the recipe scaler — every ingredient multiplies cleanly.
Ingredients — serves 4
- 12 oz (340 g) spaghetti or linguine
- 4 tbsp (57 g) butter
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- ½ cup (45 g) finely grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
- Salt for the pot, black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
- Handful of chopped parsley (optional but bright)
Method
- Salt the water hard — it should taste like seasoned soup. Boil the pasta one minute shy of the package's al dente time. Save a full mug of pasta water before draining.
- Build the base: melt butter over medium-low, add garlic slices, and cook gently until barely golden — 2–3 minutes. Brown garlic is burnt garlic; keep the heat low.
- Marry it: add pasta and a big splash of pasta water to the pan. Toss vigorously for a minute — the starchy water and butter emulsify into a sauce that coats every strand.
- Finish off heat: kill the flame, add Parmesan and pepper, tossing and loosening with more pasta water until glossy. Taste — this is where you adjust salt.
Scaling notes
Serving eight? Run the list through the scaler (4 → 8): two pounds of pasta, one stick of butter, and so on. Use your widest skillet or work in two batches — the toss needs room. Cook time doesn't change; portioning does.
Three ways to make it dinner
- Protein: white beans stirred in at the end, or seared shrimp cooked separately in the same pan first.
- Vegetable: a bag of spinach wilted into the sauce, or roasted broccoli on a sheet pan alongside.
- Weekend version: toast breadcrumbs in a little olive oil until golden and pile on top. The crunch is worth the extra pan.
Per-serving ballpark: ~450 kcal as written (without add-ins). The scaler handles the rest of the math.