20-minute meal – Garlic and caper butter with parmesan linguine

Have you ever watched ‘Jamie’s 15-minute meals’ and tried to replicate his recipes?  Unfortunately I was never able to make the dishes from the show in 15 minutes. Well, I am not Jamie Oliver after all so it is understandable I guess. Cooking technique or the speed is one thing but the most challenging part for me is the space. 15-minute meal is all about having everything ready to go in front of you and this includes all the equipment and tools. But I simply cannot layout more than 3 pots or pans in my tiny humble kitchen. So speedy cooking for me usually means that I am making 1-2 pot dishes, and pasta is just a natural choice in this case. We are having the hottest summer ever in Hong Kong, and as much as I enjoy cooking I just want to get in and out of my non air-conditioned kitchen as quick as possible. This pasta I am sharing today takes just about 20 minutes to prep and cook but still jam-packed with all the great flavors. It’s garlicky, cheesy, umami and comforting all at the same time. And the best part is that you can easily double or triple the recipe to cook for a crowd with pretty much the same amount of time. Hope you enjoy!

• Prep time: 5mins
• Cooking time: 15mins
• Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 160g. dried linguine
• Handful of salt
• 1 bulb. garlic
• 4 1/2 tbsp. capers
• 70g. parmesan cheese
• 50g. butter
• 2 tsp. light olive oil
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup. white wine

Peel outer skin and separate garlic cloves from the bulb. Place the cloves in a jar. Close the lid and shake it vigorously for 1-2 minutes or until most of the garlic cloves are separated from their skin (like the picture above). Remove skin and set aside.

Start boiling water with a handful of salt in a pot. Meanwhile, drain capers, slice garlic (cut off the hard brown bottom if necessary), grate parmesan in a food processor and set aside. Add linguine in a boiling water and cook for 9 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, add butter and capers with light olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes and add garlic and black pepper. Gently stir and cook for 3 minutes. Finally, pour in white wine and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Mix cooked linguine into the sauce with a ladleful of pasta water from the pot. Cook for 1 minute and take it off the heat. Stir in grated parmesan and serve.