Transit

Journey Overview

This is the late-night shuttle service — the culinary equivalent of hopping on a quick domestic flight when you need to get somewhere fast. It's past midnight, you're hungry, and the pantry is looking sparse. But with a handful of staples and fifteen minutes, you can land in a bowl of garlic-chilli spaghetti that tastes like a Roman trattoria at 2am.

Aglio e olio is the traveller's friend. It exists in that perfect intersection of simple, fast, and deeply satisfying. The kind of meal you make when you've just flown in from somewhere, or when you're up late working and need fuel that doesn't require thinking. Garlic, chilli, olive oil, pasta. That's the whole passenger manifest. No stopovers, no complications.

The magic is in the technique — cooking the garlic low and slow until it's golden and sweet, tossing the pasta in a silky emulsion of starchy water and olive oil, finishing with a blizzard of parmesan. It's minimalist travel at its finest: light luggage, direct route, perfect landing.

Passenger Manifest (Ingredients)

Flight Plan (Instructions)

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining.

2. While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant. Don't rush this — burnt garlic is a crashed landing.

3. Add the chilli to the pan and cook for another 30 seconds until aromatic. If the garlic is browning too quickly, remove the pan from the heat.

4. Add the drained spaghetti directly to the pan along with a big splash of pasta water (about 1/3 cup). Toss vigorously over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, adding more pasta water as needed, until the pasta is glossy and coated in a silky emulsion.

5. Remove from heat and stir through the chopped parsley. Season generously with salt.

6. Transfer to a warm bowl, top with a generous shower of parmesan, and serve immediately. Your quick domestic hop is complete — simple, fast, perfect for one.

Flight Metrics (Nutrition)