Uh Oh Spaghetti-O

My darling husband was so excited about the election results that he went to the shops and came back with champagne but no food.  I raided the fridge and the cupboards, and came up with this.

Uh Oh Spaghetti-O (serves 2 generously)

 

Turn the oven on very, very low (literally only 50ºC, or thereabouts). Set a large pan of salted water boiling on a high heat. Warm 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil on a gentle heat in a small frying pan.

Finely mince three fat garlic cloves and one large red chilli (or use a decent pinch of chilli flakes). Zest and juice one lemon. Add the garlic and chilli to the frying pan, and cook very slowly and carefully so the garlic does not burn.

Meanwhile, chop a large handful of black olives and a large handful of parsley. Drain a 50g tin of anchovies and add them to the frying pan. (Yes, that's a lot of anchovies, and a lot of garlic, but big flavours are sort of the point here.) When the anchovies start to dissolve in the oil, add the olives and the lemon zest and juice.

Add 250g spaghetti to the pan of water and cook for 8-9 minutes, or to taste. Meanwhile let the sauce bubble very, very gently, and stir occasionally. It should start to emulsify, and form a kind of tapenade-looking thing.

When the spaghetti has around 5 mins to go, pop a couple of pasta bowls (or just normal cereal bowls, or whatever you have to hand to eat pasta out of/on) into the warm oven. Juice an additional half a lemon.

Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water, and return it to the warm pan. Add the sauce to the pasta, throwing in the parsley and the additional lemon juice. If the sauce still looks too thick, add a splash of pasta cooking water. (It should only be coating the pasta, this isn't something where you end up with a puddle of sauce at the bottom of the dish.)

Transfer to warmed bowls and serve.