This shelf holds one very good bottle of basil oil, so tonight we build pasta around it: a quick, silky sauce made from just that, garlic, eggs, and pasta water. The basil is already steeped in the oil, so the sauce comes together in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

Serves 2. 25 minutes, 12 at the stove.

About 760 calories a serving, 21 g protein, 87 g carbohydrate, 36 g fat. From USDA figures for 80% of the ingredients; amounts are the recipe's.

Cook mode

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. While the water heats, finely mince 3 garlic cloves and whisk 2 eggs in a small bowl with a pinch of salt.
2. Add 8 ounces of pasta to the boiling water and cook until just shy of tender, about one minute before the package says done; you are looking for a slight firmness.9 min
3. Pour 4 tablespoons of basil oil into a wide shallow pan set over medium heat and warm the minced garlic until fragrant, about one minute, stirring often so it does not brown.1 min
4. Drain the pasta and reserve 1 cup of the cooking water, then pour the pasta into the warm basil oil. Toss to coat.
5. Turn the heat to low and pour the whisked eggs over the pasta while stirring constantly. Drizzle in just enough of the reserved pasta water, 2 tablespoons at a time, to keep everything moving and silky; the heat of the pasta and the starch in the water will cook the eggs. Stop when the sauce clings to each strand.
6. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper. Divide between two bowls and eat at once.

Note The eggs set the sauce without cream; if you are wary of raw eggs in the whisked form, use pasteurized ones. Leftovers do not hold well once made, so plan on eating this fresh. Serve with a squeeze of lemon and a crisp white wine, or with a simple bitter green salad dressed in just salt and more of the basil oil.