Ingredients for 4 people:
350g of spaghetti,
4 cloves di garlic,
1 handful of parsley,
2 red peperoncini,
5 tablespoons of virgin olive oil,
salt
 

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking: 5 minutes

In a large  frying-pan warm the oil with the hot peppers. These must be  cut into pieces. When the oil is warm, add the  chopped garlic, let it brown, then add salt, the chopped parsley, stir well and then take the hot peppers away.  When the spaghetti are ready (we like them "al dente", that is not too hard to bite, but neither overcooked), strain off the water and then put them on the frying-pan so that the sauce can be better blended with the pasta.  My tip is that you just use the seeds of hot peppers instead of cutting them into pieces. In fact, it is the seeds that give the peculiar flavour and the peel will only be hardened (?).
 

This is one of the oldest ways of preparing pasta and has many  variations, from the most simple  pasta "aglio e olio" (oil and garlic) to the more complex "aglio, olio, peperoncino, acciuga" (garlic, oil, red hot peppers,  anchovy", with or without the parsley, with rosemary instead of parsley, with some grated pecorino or some toasted dry bread served separately. The oil must, however,  always  be abundant so as to leave the pasta slippery.
 
the pasta: Take a large pot and fill it almost to the top with water and then put it on the cooking stove. Wait until the water boils, then put the spaghetti in and  shuffle them once in a while so they don't get stuck together. Depending on the type of spaghetti and the brand name you use, the pasta should be ready or as we say, "al dente", after 5-8 minutes.
 

Wine: prosecco

Spaghetti alla carbonara

Ingredients for 4 people:
350g of spaghetti
4 eggs*
bacon
parmigiano
pepper
salt

 
 
The sauce : Take the yolks (some use one yolk per person, some less) and a white  and beat them up a bit. Then add salt, pepper and some parmigiano and mix everything.  Meanwhile fry the bacon on a frying pan in hot oil or fat to a light brown. Personally I prefer frying the bacon without any oil or fat.
the pasta: Take a large pot and fill it almost to the top with water and then put it on the cooking stove. Wait until the water boils, then put the spaghetti in and  shuffle them once in a while so they don't get stuck together. Depending on the type of spaghetti and the brand name you use, the pasta should be ready or as we say, "al dente", after 5-8 minutes.
 

Best served with:
any full-meal red wine

Spaghetti cacio e pepe (pepper and pecorino)

For 4 people:
350g of spaghetti
150g of pecorino
one spoon of black pepper grounded at the moment

Preparation time: 5 minutes

While the pasta is cooking, grate the pecorino and grind the pepper grossly. Warm a capacious soup-toureen, pour in the pasta al dente, cover it with the grated cheese to which you will have mixed the pepper. Then stir well, adding one or two tablespoons of the cooking water that you will have kept aside or two tablespoons of virgin olive oil. Instead of using pepper, you can also use the pecorino that is on sale already aromatised with grains of pepper. You will have, however, to grind it with a machine so as to grate the pepper and the cheese at the same time.

Best served with:
prosecco, full-meal red wines

Spaghetti alla francescana

For 4 people:
300g of spaghetti
300g of potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
2 red hot  peppers
1 handful of parsley
5 spoons of virgin olive oil
grana
salt

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Peal the potatoes, cut them in little cubic pieces of no more than 1 cm per side and cook them in 3 litres of boiling salty water for about 5 minutes, then add the spaghetti and cook them al dente together with the potatoes. Meanwhile, let the garlic brown and toast the hot peppers in the oil. When the garlic is light brown add one ladle full of cooking water (the water you have used for cooking the pasta). Drain the spaghetti and the potatoes, put them in the frying-pan for a couple of minutes, dust them with grated grana and chopped parsley. Finally serve them together with the sauce of water and oil that is left in the frying-pan. 

Spaghetti con tapenade

For 4 people:
300g of spaghetti
300g of zucchini
4 tablespoons of paste of black olives (tapenade)
4 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
salt
white pepper

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Clean the zucchini and drain them. Then you have to cut them so as to make them resemble matches. You cook them in boiling salty  water for a few minutes so as to leave tkem crispy. Drain and season the zucchini with two tablespoons of oilive oil. Cook the spaghetti al dente,drain and put them into a warmed soup toureen. In this you will have mixed the olives' paste with the remaining oil. Stir well, add the zucchini, a bit of pepper and serve right away.  

Spaghetti alla marinara

For 4 people:
350g of spaghetti
700g of ripe tomatoes,
150g of black olives,
2 cloves of garlic
30g of caper under salt
1 handful of basil 
4 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
salt

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
To marinate: 1 hour

Half-cook and peal the tomatoes, remove the seeds but try to keep the  "water" and put them in a saucepan with the stoned and chopped olives, the thinly cut garlic, the cleaned and well-drained capers, and the basil in leaves. Season with the oil and let the sauce marinate (pickle) for about an hour. Cook and  drain the spaghetti well, put them in a warmed soup-toureen and add the sauce. Then stir well and serve right away. 

Spaghetti al granchio (crab sauce spaghetti)

For 4 people:
300g of spaghetti
250g of crab pulp (also in can)
300g of tomatoes (San Marzano: they're small and pear-shaped)
1 clove of garlic
1 small onion
a handful of parsley
4 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
salt and white pepper ground  before the use
 

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Half-cook and then peal the tomatoes (or use canned ones), without the seeds and their water. Cut the onion and the garlic very thinly and let them brown in a pan with the oil, add the tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes. Break the crab pulp into pieces, add it to the sauce with salt and pepper according to your taste, but not too much. Cook the spaghetti, drain them and put them in the pan with the sauce on a low flame for a couple of minutes. Add some chopped parsley on the spaghetti and serve them right away in warmed dishes.