Garlic Noodles
Spaghetti tossed in a butter and garlic sauce with soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce and Parmesan, the San Francisco Vietnamese-American noodle dish. Ready in 35 minutes with ingredients from a regular grocery store.
Spaghetti tossed in a butter and garlic sauce with soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce and Parmesan, the San Francisco Vietnamese-American noodle dish. Ready in 35 minutes with ingredients from a regular grocery store.
Garlic Noodles
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- ¼ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Noodles
- 6 oz (170 g) dry spaghetti
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup finely grated Parmesan
- 1 tablespoon sliced green onion
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Start the water.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it lightly. Cook the spaghetti until tender with a little bite left, about 12 minutes, starting it first so it finishes while you make the sauce. Save a cup of the cooking water before draining.
- Mix the sauce.
Stir the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire, fish sauce, sesame oil and cayenne together in a small bowl.
- Cook the garlic.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir for about 1 minute, until it smells fragrant and has not browned. Pour in the sauce, stir once and turn off the heat.
- Toss.
Lift the spaghetti into the skillet with tongs, letting some of the cooking water come with it. Toss over low heat until every strand is coated, then stir in the Parmesan. Add a splash more cooking water if the noodles look dry.
- Serve.
Divide between two plates and top with the green onion and red pepper flakes.
Notes
Start the pasta first: The sauce takes about 5 minutes and the garlic butter should not sit and cool, so have the spaghetti close to done when you start it.
Measuring 6 oz of pasta: Weigh it dry. Without a scale, a bundle of spaghetti about 1 1/4 inches across is roughly 6 oz, or use half of a 12 oz box.
Salt: Soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and Parmesan are all salty. Use unsalted butter and low-sodium soy sauce, and salt the pasta water lightly. If it still tastes too salty, cut the soy and oyster sauce by a third next time.
Fish sauce swap: Leave it out, or use 1 teaspoon each of soy sauce and rice vinegar. Oyster sauce also contains shellfish, so for a shellfish allergy leave it out and add 1 more teaspoon of soy sauce, which makes a plainer sauce.
Other noodles: Chinese egg noodles, ramen and angel hair all work. Adjust the cooking time to the package.
Add to it: Shrimp, sliced chicken, sautéed cabbage or mushrooms go in with the garlic before the sauce. Double the sauce if you add a lot.
Origin: Garlic noodles came out of Thanh Long, a Vietnamese-American restaurant in San Francisco that opened in the 1970s, where they are served with roasted crab. This version is a home approximation.
