To start, roughly chop the parsley, slice the garlic cloves and cut the chilli peppers into rounds (discarding the seeds).
Fill a large pan with approximately 4 litres (1 gallon + 5/8 cup) of water. Bring the water to the boil, add the salt and then add the spaghetti.
For this recipe, cook the spaghetti until they are almost “al dente” (firm to the bite). When the spaghetti have been cooking for 5 minutes, start making the aglio olio peperoncino sauce.
To make the sauce, heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan. The heat should be gentle, to allow the oil to be infused without burning the garlic and chilli (burned garlic would spoil the sauce). Add the garlic and chilli to the pan.
Gently infuse the oil for a couple of minutes or so, until the garlic become golden in colour. Tilting the pan will allow you to better infuse the oil and it is less likely that the garlic become burned.
If your timing is correct, your spaghetti should, by now, be almost cooked al dente. Add half of the parsley into the hot sauce.
Give the sauce a quick stir and quickly drain the spaghetti, retaining half a ladle of the boiling water you have used to cook the spaghetti.
Add the drained spaghetti to the large saucepan containing the hot sauce.
Add half a ladle of the water you have used to boil the spaghetti. This water will help to create an emulsion, which will coat the spaghetti.
Toss the spaghetti, over fierce heat, for a minute or so.
Now, if you like (but it is not strictly necessary), add the remaining parsley and toss the spaghetti again for few seconds.
The spaghetti aglio olio peperoncino is ready to be served.
Plate the spaghetti and enjoy this hot dish with a glass of chilled dry white wine from the Castelli romani wine producing area.Many people in Italy, and in Rome too, like to eat this spaghetti dish topped with some freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Purists say it is an offence; personally I think adding a bit of Pecorino cheese is fine, as long as you don’t exaggerate, otherwise the cheese flavour will overpower the typical flavour of the aglio olio peperoncino sauce.