Naples, Campania, and southern Italy broadly. The dish is the quintessential cucina povera (poor kitchen) preparation — made from pantry staples by anyone who has returned home too late to cook properly. Beloved precisely because its simplicity is also its difficulty.
Spaghetti aglio e olio is a 1am dish — the food of Naples at midnight, made from what is always in the kitchen. Spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, dried chilli, parsley, pasta water. The emulsion of oil and starchy pasta water is the sauce — not a garnish, a sauce. Executed with precision, it is one of the great pasta dishes. Executed carelessly — burnt garlic, insufficient pasta water, no emulsification — it is a plate of oily noodles.
- Chinese scallion oil noodles (noodles tossed in slow-infused scallion oil — same principle of fat infused with aromatics); Korean garlic noodles (similar pantry-based noodle dish with slow-cooked garlic); Spanish pasta ajo y aceite (same technique, same name, same cultural logic).
Falanghina from Campania — it is the wine of Naples, it is the wine of aglio e olio. The slight bitterness of the Falanghina mirrors the bitterness of the toasted chilli; the fruit echoes the sweetness of the properly cooked garlic. A cold Nastro Azzurro is also correct — this is a midnight dish.