My mother made this for our family all the time, It was our annual Christmas Eve meal. But she used the whole can of anchoives. I tried it with the red pepper flakes. YUMMY!!! The best of this dish it is better the 2nd day ..

You can use pancetta instead of anchovies and I like to finish it off with a little bit of bread crumbs tossed in...They soak up some of the oil and taste amazing!

This was my family's annual Christmas Eve dinner as well. We never used parsley, but we used a lot more anchovies, at least one whole can (though I like to get a lot more flavor - I actually use four whole cans of anchovies when I cook this dish!).

When draining the linguine (I only use linguine, not spaghetti), I reserve quite a lot of water. After tossing in the sauce, I let the dish sit for a couple minutes, and the linguine noodles soak up A LOT of that excess water. Then I serve, and everyone always loves this dish!

My granny made it with Dececco spaghetti and Bertolli EVOO... she made. Garlic about 40 cloves simmer slow in hot oil then poured it over pasta sitting in large dish with some pasta water.. finished with pepperoncini flakes and chopped fresh parsley and locattelli. Pecorino and parma mixed. Da best!