Aglio, Olio, Peperoncino
Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino is one of the great dishes of La Cucina Italiana. It is the ultimate last-minute, late-night, just-home-from-a-party-with-nothing-in-the-pantry bare bones recipe. Growing up, our mother would often cook and serve it to us as a delicious, medicinal remedy to the common cold. It is garlicky and spicy, heartwarming and soul-satisfying.
Aglio, Olio Dust
Spaghetti Dust is our ready-to-go tube of traveling Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino. The idea is that you drain your al dente! pasta and toss it in a bowl with your Spaghetti Dust and ≈ 1/3 cup of high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil, then serve immediately at the table or, if it's been a late night, you consume it entirely and directly on the kitchen counter.
It is intended for pasta but goes great on grilled veggies, fish, steak, pizza, and mixed with olive oil to dunk bread into and/or bake into a perfect garlic bread, sprinkled on top of salad, or even mixed in with a guacamole!
The bold flavors pair great with anything from a nice cold beer to a glass of chilled Malvasia or Albariño!
Ingredients & Sourcing
To honor the elemental beauty of spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino, we turned to ingredients that capture the essence of fire, earth, and sun. Each was chosen to reflect the dish's simplicity and complexity, the quiet poetry of heat meeting oil, an intensity of flavor born from restraint.
Featuring!
Toasted Garlic
Golden and mellow, roasted garlic sheds its sharpness and reveals a caramel sweetness and soft depth. It anchors the Dust with a gentle warmth like embers glowing beneath flame, lending body and roundness to each forkful of pasta.
Calabrian Chili
Sun-soaked Calabrian Chilies carry the soul of the Italian south. Bright, fruity heat with a whisper of smoke and salt. Their flavor is fuller than a simple burn, round, sweet, and wild. When bloomed in oil, it releases a radiant, lingering warmth that lingers on your palette, and in your mind.
Parsley
Clean, verdant parsley lends a vivid freshness. All at once brightening and lifting as if a distillation of sunlight itself adorned the dish.
Flaky Sea Salt
Crystalline sea salt harvested from the tide's retreat weaves the flavors together, amplifying the garlic's depth and chili's spark while leaving a trace of the sea behind.
Spaghetti Dust – Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino is a shortcut to tatilizing, sophisticated simplicity, the essence of flame, oil, earth and sea in one pinch. Tossed with pasta, dashed on clams, or sprinkled over vegetables, it brings the heat of a sizzling pan and the brightness of the Italian coast to whatever it touches.
Cooking Advice
- Cook your pasta 1 min shy of al dente & drain, reserving some pasta water.
- Return your pasta to the pot and add one half to one full tube Spaghetti Dust, along with 1/3 cup (75ml) of great Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
- Serve hot and devour immediately and ravenously.
👀 How to Make a Meal with Spaghetti Dust 🎥
Read the Spaghetti Sentinel's Special Report on the Mysterious Origins of Spaghetti Dust
More Recipe Ideas
Guacamole Aglio Olio
Method: Peel → Dash → Mash
- Take your perfectly ripe avocados, peel them, and add them to a mixing bowl with diced red onion, chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and a dusting of Spaghetti Dust.
- Mash them all together, taste and adjust for what's missing (salt, cilantro, lime, Spaghetti Dust), and serve with great tortilla chips.
Spaghetti Dust Clams
Method: Heat → Stir → Steam
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs littleneck clams, scrubbed
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1½ tsp Spaghetti Dust – Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino
- ½ cup dry white wine or broth
- Lemon wedges for serving
- Fresh parsley (optional)
- Heat olive oil in a wide sauté pan with a lid over medium heat.
- Add Spaghetti Dust and let it bloom for 20–30 seconds until fragrant — as the garlic and chili awaken, the air should shimmer with heat and perfume.
- Add the clams and toss to coat in the Dust and oil.
- Pour in wine or broth, cover, and steam until the clams open, about 5–7 minutes.
- Discard any that remain closed. Toss the clams in their juices to emulsify.
- Spoon into bowls, drizzle with olive oil, and finish with a pinch more Dust or a squeeze of lemon. Sop up what remains in the bowl with a warm crusty bread.
You can also make Baked Clams with Spaghetti Dust. For 12 littleneck clams:
- Heat oven to 450°F while shucking clams.
- Heat a pan and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add about a ½ cup breadcrumbs & ¼ cup Spaghetti Dust, mixing until evenly coated and toast until light golden.
- Let cool, then spoon a small mound onto each clam.
- Put them on a baking sheet and bake until golden and crispy, 8–10 minutes.
- Serve hot with lemon wedges and a final dusting of Dust, and drink with a cold beer or crisp white wine.
Even More Ideas
Spaghetti Dust goes great on all sorts of things, many of which we would have never thought of! Below are some suggestions our community of cooks and customers have passed along to us.
Try Spaghetti Dust...
- On Pizza
- On Eggs
- Dusted over salad
- Over avocado toast
- Used on top of baked clams
- Dashed into steamed clams for a super quick spaghetti alle vongole (steam clams with olive oil, spaghetti dust, and a slug of white wine)
- Mixed into a guacamole
- Rained over sautéed vegetables like asparagus, broccoli rabe etc.
- Dusted over grilled/sauteed mushrooms as soon as they're off the heat (a squeeze of lemon also really lifts this all)
- Dusted over grilled fish with a squeeze of lemon
- Used as a marinade for steak with olive oil and vinegar
- Added to a chimichurri
- Dashed into cannellini beans
- Dashed into a soup like tomato, chicken noodle, butternut squash etc.
- Sprinkled between bread and cheese for a lively grilled cheese