Shiso Garlic Pasta

1. Gather all the ingredients.

To Cook the Spaghetti

1. Start boiling 4 quarts (16 cups, 3.8 L) water in a large pot (I used a 4.5 QT Dutch oven). Once boiling, add 1 Tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and 7 oz spaghetti.
2. Stir to make sure the spaghetti doesn’t stick to each other. Tip: I usually reduce the cooking time by 1 minute if I have to continue cooking the pasta afterward. Drain if you finish cooking the spaghetti first, but you should be able to cook the rest of the ingredients in 10 minutes while the spaghetti is boiling.

To Prepare the Ingredients

1. While cooking the pasta, we prepare the ingredients. Peel 2 cloves garlic and thinly slice them.
2. Cut off the end of 1 dried red chili pepper and discard the seeds. If you‘d like the dish to be spicy, you can add some seeds. I usually remove most of the seeds. Cut the chili into small pieces.
3. Wash 15 leaves shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) (or you may use another herb) and dry them completely with a paper towel or kitchen towel. Cut off the stems, stack, and roll them up.
4. Cut into thinly slices (chiffonade) and then mince them.

To Cook the Shiso Garlic Pasta

1. With 5 minutes left until the spaghetti is ready, heat 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Before the oil gets hot, add in the garlic to start infusing. Make sure to coat the garlic with oil.
2. When the garlic is sizzling and well-coated with oil, add the red chili pepper and ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Shake the pan and make sure the oil is infused with garlic and pepper.
3. Reserve 2 Tbsp of pasta water. When the spaghetti is done cooking, pick up the noodles with a pair of tongs (or you can quickly drain in the sink) and add to the pan.
4. Add 2 Tbsp reserved pasta water to the pan.
5. Add the chopped shiso leaves (or the herb of your choice) and season the spaghetti with freshly ground pepper. Taste and season with salt if needed. The reserved pasta water I added has enough salt, so I do not add additional salt here.
6. Toss the spaghetti with a pair of tongs to mix all together and serve. Enjoy!