Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Spaghetti with garlic and oil)
Spaghetti with garlic and butter
Marinara Spaghetti with calabeza squash and bacon
Wanted to experiment, so I divided up 1 lb (16 ounces) of spaghetti into 4 ounce sections, made it individually, and made the spaghetti (water was salted until it tasted like broth). Water was added in between pasta batches.
here were the notes taken on flavor:
Spaghetti with garlic and oil:
flavor is clean, crisp, oily, light.
Spaghetti with garlic and butter:
flavor is rich, creamy, has depth, but heavy.
Marinara Spaghetti with calabeza squash and bacon:
flavor was standard and tired, sweet and sour prego sauce tasted processed and paled in comparison to the oil and butter pastas. The sauce overpowered and masked the noodles. But tomato sauce does go well with pasta. I commented that “fresh sauce would be good”. And noted that it should be tried sometime.
The best overall, in my opinion, is the spaghetti with garlic and oil. If I had to choose one to eat, given no qualifiers, that would be it. It has good overall flavor and feel.
The Spaghetti with garlic and butter had, the best taste when fresh. I was surprised at how good it was. I can see now why restaurants rely so much on butter sauces. But, I’m not sure if I could/would/should eat butter sauces everyday. They are quite rich.
My least favorite of the batches was the canned marinara sauce, but it does store the best over a few days. The oil and butter pastas, in that order, turn into oily dry messes over time, aka a few hours to days later. Whereas, the tomato sauce pasta, presumably because of the moisture in the sauce, made great leftovers.
-Isaac
20140125