Longganisa Aglio e Olio

In an effort to incorporate more Filipino ingredients into our food, we made a Filipino-style pasta dish that got us asking “why haven’t we done this before?” The first time we made this was for meal prepping, but we ended up eating it all!

Longganisa Aglio e Olio is a Filipino-style pasta inspired by the traditional Italian pasta dish Aglio e olio. Sweet pork sausage, garlic, and olive oil are tossed in noodles. This longganisa pasta recipe is quick and easy and can be made in a single pot or pan.

Read on to get the recipe!

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This recipe is sponsored by Our Place.

Amazingly, because of the Always Pan, this entire recipe used only one piece of cookware! We boiled, strained, AND cooked everything for this dish using this pan. Incredible, right?

We’ve been using it for almost a month now and can confirm that it’s well-designed for cooking, aesthetically pleasing, and saves so much time on pesky dishwashing. Not to mention it’s ethically sourced and made!

Our Place is a brand that invests in ethical labor, responsible materials, and real stories, so we’re grateful for this opportunity to be sponsored by them. We can’t wait to use this pan in more of our recipes!

Check out our Always Pan review here!

Now, let’s get on to cooking!

What is Aglio e Olio?

Aglio e olio is a pasta dish meaning “[with] garlic and oil” traditionally from Naples, Italy.

Aglio e olio is known for its simplicity. The main ingredients are garlic, olive oil, and noodles. This dish is commonly tossed with chili flakes and parsley, and the most common dish is spaghetti aglio e olio. These simple pasta recipes usually call for no more than 5-10 ingredients, including cheese (parmesan or pecorino romano), meats, vegetables, or other herbs.

However, some argue that these aren’t real aglio e olio dishes, because they have more than the original 3-5 ingredients.

Despite the differences, we believe that most aglio e olio recipes stay true to the idea of simplicity and make an easy addition to your weekly meal plans!

Adding Filipino flavor to an Italian Classic

What we love about aglio e olio is how easy it is to customize to your liking. As mentioned earlier, many people make aglio e olio but like to add one or two of their personal favorite ingredients.

This dish serves as a great base that you can add or modify, which is exactly what we did for our Filipino-style Longganisa Aglio e Olio!

Since Filipino cuisine relies heavily on garlic flavors, we thought this dish would be a perfect place to intersect Filipino food with Italian food.

What is Longganisa?

Longganisa (also spelled longanisa) is a Filipino sweet pork sausage that is often served with garlic fried rice. It’s found in both spicy and sweet versions, and can also be made with chicken.

As longanisa has a strong flavor, you can eat it with any of your favorite carbs like rice, pasta, or bread (Longanisa pizza, anyone?). A commonly eaten and delicious Filipino dish that uses longganisa is Longsilog, a breakfast dish that pairs this tasty sausage with eggs and garlic rice!

We chose to use longganisa in this pasta recipe because its rich flavor pairs beautifully with the garlic, oil, and cheese in Aglio e Olio!

If you would like to try making your own longganisa, check out our recipe for Pampanga Skinless Longanisa.

Dish Ingredients

To make this longganisa pasta dish, you will need the following ingredients:

Longganisa Aglio e Olio

• 3-5 pieces longganisa frozen
• 6 cloves garlic sliced
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• 1 lb linguine cooked per manufacturer’s instructions, reserve pasta water
• ⅓ cup parsley chopped

Toppings

• chili flakes to taste
• salt & pepper to taste
• freshly grated parmesan optional

How to Make Longganisa Aglio e Olio

Ready for the longganisa pasta recipe? Set aside about 30 minutes, and keep on reading!

Cook Longganisa

1. Add frozen longganisa and 1 cup of water to the pan. Bring water to a boil and cover for 5 min or until all the water is evaporated.
2. Uncover the pan. Cook and flip the longganisa until all sides are browned.
3. Remove from heat and let it rest for 5 min. Cut into bite-sized pieces then set aside.

Prepare Longganisa Aglio e Olio

1. Without removing the leftover longganisa oil, add olive oil to the pan. Keep the heat on medium-high.
2. Add garlic to the pan and cook until golden-colored.

3. Add noodles and toss to mix it up. If the noodles feel sticky or clumpy, add a few tbsp of pasta water as needed to make the noodles more manageable.

4. Add longganisa. Toss well.

5. Add parsley. Season with chili flakes, salt, & pepper to taste.

Tips on Making Longganisa Aglio e Olio

• Use the highest quality ingredients you can (especially for olive oil.) Because there are so few ingredients used in this recipe, the quality of your ingredients will enhance the flavors and really make a difference.
• If you would like your longganisa to be crispy, pancetta-like pieces, take a few minutes to prep them before tossing them into your pasta! Try cutting them into mini cubes and then searing them until you get nice, crisp edges.

Final Thoughts

For a quick & easy weeknight meal, you need to try this Filipino-style longanisa pasta. Sweet sausage, fragrant garlic, and al dente noodles will tempt you into making this a permanent menu item in your kitchen!

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References & Further Reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_aglio_e_olio

https://www.tasteatlas.com/aglio-e-olio

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on February 26, 2021. It has been updated with content and images on May 11, 2023.