San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles 🤤

San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles (with 10 cloves of garlic!) 🤤🤤

Get Susan Vu’s recipe 👇

San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles
Recipe courtesy of Susan Vu for Food Network Kitchen
Level: Easy
Total: 20 min
Active: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings

This easy pasta blends Vietnamese, Italian and American ingredients to create a umami-packed sauce that’s buttery, a little cheesy and wonderfully savory and garlicky. It’s inspired by the iconic garlic noodles created by Chef Helene An at Thanh Long in San Francisco. To shake things up a bit, we lightly brown some of the butter in the sauce to give it nutty notes and top the dish with a sprinkle of store-bought crispy fried garlic or shallots for crunch (find them at Asian grocery stores). And while thick wheat noodles are used in the original version, we use dried spaghetti in ours — this pantry staple soaks up the indulgent sauce beautifully, but you can also switch out the spaghetti for fresh Asian-style noodles if you prefer.

Ingredients
Kosher salt
12 ounces dried spaghetti (see Cook’s Note)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons minced garlic (from about 10 large cloves or about 1 ounce)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons Maggi Seasoning (see Cook’s Note)
Large pinch light brown sugar, optional
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 1 ounce), plus more for sprinkling
3 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions, plus more for sprinkling
Asian-style crispy fried garlic or shallots, for sprinkling, optional

Directions

Fill a short stock pot or large Dutch oven with roughly 3 inches water and salt it lightly. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Once melted, continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a silicone spatula, until brown flecks appear and the butter smells nutty, about 3 minutes longer. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and stir until melted. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until it is tender and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the oyster sauce, fish sauce, Maggi Seasoning and brown sugar, if using, and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low.

Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water then drain the spaghetti. Add the pasta to the sauce in the skillet. Sprinkle with half of the Parmesan, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water, and use tongs to stir until mostly combined. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan, drizzle with another 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water and stir vigorously until the cheese is melted and the pasta is coated in a creamy sauce, adding more pasta water to loosen up the sauce if needed. Remove from the heat and stir in the scallions.

Divide the pasta between 4 serving plates or bowls, sprinkle with additional Parmesan and sliced scallions. Top with crispy garlic or shallots if using. Serve immediately.

Cook’s Note
Maggi Seasoning is a savory, umami-packed sauce made from hydrolyzed wheat protein. We highly recommend using it for the deep flavor it gives this recipe, but you can also substitute 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. You can swap in 1 pound fresh Asian-style wheat noodles cooked according to package directions for the 12 ounces of dried spaghetti.

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