Boil your pasta JUST until al dente. I usually boil it for about 1 minute less than the lowest recommended cooking time. So if it says boil 9-11 minutes, I usually start tasting it at 8 minutes and strain the noodles as soon as they’re al dente. They’re going to cook just a bit more once tossed with the sauce so this will prevent them from getting mushy.

Toss your cooked pasta in olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. This is going to prevent it from sticking together and making it really easy to slather it in the tomato and garlic sauce at the end. Also, no need to rinse the pasta at all! Those starches are going to help the sauce coat every noodle.

Be sure to keep stirring after you’ve added the garlic so that it doesn’t burn! The butter, oil, and white wine are going to do a good job coating the garlic, which will keep it from burning also. But make sure that you are stirring the garlic and tomatoes every couple of minutes while they simmer so that a rouge piece of garlic doesn’t stick to the pan and burn.

Work over medium or medium-low heat for this recipe. It can be tempting to crank the heat and get things moving (especially when you have to simmer something for 8 minutes). But DON’T! As mentioned above the garlic can burn easily so it’s important to heat it low and slow. Patience is a virtue and it will come in handy for this recipe!