Crunchy garlic-rusk pasta (Skordomakaronada)

Ingredients

• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into thin slivers
• 4 large tomatoes
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• ½ tsp sugar
• 500 g (1 lb) spaghetti
• ½ Mykonos or other barley rusk (mostra), ground into hard crumbs, in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle (see Note)
• 1 cup Mykonos kopanisti cheese, optional (see Note)
• ½ cup chopped parsley, for garnish

Instructions

1. Grate the tomato on coarse side of a hand grater.
2. Heat 90 ml (4½ tablespoons) of the olive oil in a large skillet over low heat and add the garlic slivers. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until soft. Add the grated tomatoes, raise the heat to medium and cook until most of the tomato juices have evaporated, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add salt, pepper and sugar.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and cook the spaghetti to al dente.
4. Serve the cooked and drained spaghetti topped or mixed with the sauce and sprinkled with rusk crumbs and parsley. Top, if desired, with a spoonful of kopanisti cheese (or feta, see Note).

Note

• You can also use lightly toasted, large dried breadcrumbs instead of rusk crumbs over the top.

• Kopanisti is a spreadable, salty-peppery cheese, made with a mixture of cow, sheep and goat cheese on Mykanos and other islands of the Cyclades. You can use feta instead of the kopanisti, or other cheese of your choice.