This is a great side dish if you don't follow the recipe. I know that sounds strange. I am not Italian, but I never heard of putting garlic into pasta water! What a waste! I cooked the pasta and drained it. Then took the garlic and sauteed that in some butter until it was browned. I used fresh basil instead of the chives. You can pretty much use any combination of herbs here (oregano, basil, parsley). Just remember to taste it. I added the garlic and herbs to the pasta along with the extra melted butter, tossed it and then added parmesan cheese. It makes a nice, flavorful, simple, easy to do, side dish that virtually takes no time at all to create. It's a shame that this is getting poor reviews as written.

I think this is a good recipe. I didn't add the garlic to the water but cooked it with the butter. Good side recipe.

With just a couple of minor adjustments this is a 5-star dish, one I grew up with and have made many, many times in my life! To us Italians, eating pasta like this is similar to how we also think of mashed potatoes--served to accompany, not overshadow, meat--therefore, I don't see "bland" as a relevant way to describe this. Don't boil the garlic in the pasta water and don't use garlic salt. It doesn't make sense to me to discard the garlic only to add garlic salt. Rather, mince the garlic, and cook it in the butter over low heat just until fragrant, but don't let it brown. The Parmesan cheese and chives are flavorful additions that complete the dish. Reserve some of the cooking water to add to the pasta, as it absorbs liquids readily and may get gummy without it. I served this tonight with "Pork Chops with Herbed Gravy" and, as usual, it was simply and perfectly delicious.

I didn't like this dish at all. I thought it would be really flavorful, but it was bland. I wouldn't make it again and apparently my guests didn't like it much either because they asked for spaghetti sauce.

I used I can't believe its not butter medditerranean blend in place of butter and it tasted great. Its kind of bland, but great under chicken parm or a similar dish . . . I also had to use more regular salt on top of the garlic salt