Buttered noodles that bite back
Butter, garlic and gochujang reduced to a brick-red gloss. Dinner from the shelf in 25 minutes.
At a Glance
Story
Gochujang is not just heat, it is fermented heat. The paste ages glutinous rice and soybeans with the chile, which is where its deep, almost chocolatey savour comes from, and why honey and vinegar can round it into a sauce this plush. Buy the tub labelled paste, the squeeze-bottle sauce is already cut with vinegar and sugar and will throw the balance.
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti or other long pasta
- 6 tbsp unsalted butterdivided
- 12 cloves garlicfinely chopped (about ⅓ cup, and yes, all twelve)
- salt and pepper
- ¼ cup gochujang pastepaste, not the bottled sauce
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup sherry vinegar or rice vinegar
- cilantroscallions or toasted sesame seeds, to finish (optional)
Method
The pantry dinner with the highest glamour-to-effort ratio on this site. One skillet of brick-red butter, one pot of noodles, done before the garlic breath can warn anyone.
- Boil the pasta in well-salted water per the package. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water before draining, then return the pasta to its pot.
- While it cooks, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium-low. Add the garlic, season generously with salt and cook 1 to 3 minutes, until softened but not browned. A swipe of neutral oil inside your measuring cup first, and the gochujang slides out without a fight.
- Stir in the gochujang, honey and vinegar and simmer over medium-high, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes, until a spatula dragged across the pan leaves a trail that holds for a few seconds.
- Scrape the sauce onto the pasta with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and stir hard, adding splashes of the reserved water until every strand is glossed. That starchy water is the emulsifier, it turns butter and paste into one clinging sauce instead of a puddle. Season, shower with whatever finish you fancy and serve immediately.
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