We love pasta around here, and it doesn’t have to be fancy. I love it with just a little lemon and really good extra virgin olive oil. If I have the time, I’ll add roasted garlic to the mix with this Lemon Garlic Pasta recipe. That’s why I was so eager to try this recipe for Garlic Noodles. The name doesn’t do it justice! It combines roasted garlic from my favorite recipe with black garlic, sesame oil, and salty-savory sauce. It sounds so yummy, and I can’t wait to try it!
Garlic noodles with double the garlic! Made with oven roasted garlic & black garlic (for it’s umami-ness), these noodles are packed with garlicky flavor & a must try for every garlic lover out there!
The Ingredients
I already had the black garlic left over from the Pork Ribs with Black Garlic Miso Glaze I made last week. That saved me some time since it’s not something I could find locally. I had a few other things on hand like soy sauce, olive oil, toasted sesame oil, and butter. That left me looking for oyster sauce and spaghettini.
Oyster sauce is available at my usual grocery store, so I wasn’t worried about that. The spaghettini would probably require a trip to the local Italian grocery store since they have a huge selection of specialty pasta. And it’s not like I need an excuse to go there—it’s a foodie wonderland!
I had never heard of spaghettini, but I realized I already had it when I looked it up. Mine was labeled “thin spaghetti”, but that’s exactly spaghettini is. It’s thicker than angel hair or capellini but thinner than spaghetti. That left me one ingredient to shop for: oyster sauce. Easy!
The Process
Making this recipe wasn’t difficult, but it did take some time. Roasting the garlic was the culprit, but most of that time was inactive. The prep work was super simple.
Roasting the Garlic
To roast the garlic, I began but cutting off the bottom of each bulb. I made sure to cut into the cloves so they would be easy to squeeze out once the garlic had cooled. Surprisingly, the peel I cut away stayed intact, and I discarded the ends of the cloves.
The recipe says to roast the garlic in foil, but I chose my tried and true method of a ramekin with a foil cover. I generously drizzled each in olive oil, added a touch of salt, and covered the dishes tightly before adding them to a sheet pan and roasting.
The garlic cloves I bought were huge, so I left them in the oven for the full 40 minutes. They came out nice and soft, which is exactly what I wanted. I roasted the garlic well before I was ready to make the noodles so I had time to let it cool.
To do that, I broke open the top of the foil with a knife and removed the garlic to a cutting board to cool. I saved both ramekins since each had extra garlic oil left in them.
Boiling the Noodles
I made the noodles while I let the garlic roast. I had put a salted pot of water on to boil when I began the garlic, and it was ready by the time I had the garlic in the oven. Then all I had to do was boil the noodles for 5 minutes, strain them, and run cool water over them. They were ready well before the garlic finished, so I set them aside while I waited.
I also mixed up the sauce and set it aside. It didn’t need to be cooked and was the easiest part of the recipe. Just measure three ingredients, add to a small bowl, and stir to mix.
Putting it All Together
I was ready to go when it came time to make the noodles thanks to the smell of the roasted garlic! Making the garlic mash was the next step, and it was as easy as it sounded. I squeezed both heads of roasted garlic into a mixing bowl and added the peeled clove of black garlic. Then I mixed in the leftover garlic oil and added a touch more from the bottle until I was happy with the texture.
Now I was ready to put it all together. I began by cooking the garlic mash for a few minutes in a large skillet. Then I added the noodles and sauce and mixed everything thoroughly with a pair of tongs so all the noodles were coated.
The recipe’s photo shows the noodles topped with sesame seeds, but they are not listed in the ingredients. I liked the look and happened to have some toasted sesame seeds on hand to add.
Timing
This recipe listed 45 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and a title time of 50 minutes. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 3 minutes to prep garlic
- 40 minutes to roast garlic
- 11 minutes to prep remaining ingredients
- 6 minutes to cook, drain, and rinse pasta
- 5 minutes to make garlic mash
- 11 minutes to cook garlic mash and noodles
- 59 minutes total
I went a little over the time listed on the recipe, and it looks like that happened on the last step, cooking the noodles with the garlic mash and sauce. I took my time and made sure the sauce and garlic were thoroughly mixed into the noodles so I miss any of the garlicky goodness!
