Spaghetti aglio e olio

Drop a pound of spaghetti into boiling water and work it in with tongs; it cooks in under ten minutes.

Salt the water once it is boiling. Do not add oil, which coats the pasta so the sauce will not adhere; keep working the pasta for a couple of minutes while the starch releases so it does not stick.

Put the garlic into the olive oil in a cold pan so it cooks from the inside out and infuses the oil; add a pinch of hot pepper flakes and cook until lightly golden.

Chop the parsley.

When the garlic is about halfway cooked, add the pine nuts, which toast faster, and cook until both are lightly golden.

Grate the parmigiano; turn the sauce as low as it will go.

Tong the cooked pasta straight into the pan with a little of its starchy water.

Add parmigiano and parsley, raise the heat and cook everything together for a minute, until the starchy water and olive oil meld into a creamy coating.