You don't need a jar of sauce. This Sicilian pasta with garlic, olive oil and toasted breadcrumbs is the dinner my mother made in 1940s Sicily, when there was no money. It feeds four for under $5, about $1.17 a plate.

📖 42 more hard-times dinners, with the cost of every plate!

https://cookthesicilianway.com
This recipe is on page 18.

⭐ PASTA CA' MUDDICA (pasta with toasted breadcrumbs) · serves 4
1 lb spaghetti
4 oz stale bread, grated into coarse crumbs (about 2 cups)
7 tbsp olive oil (3 for the crumbs, 4 for the garlic)
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
4 anchovy fillets (optional, but try them)
A pinch of chili flakes, a handful of parsley
1 tbsp table salt for 4 quarts of pasta water

1. Grate the stale bread. If there's mold anywhere on the loaf, the whole loaf goes.
2. Toast the crumbs in 3 tbsp oil on medium-low, stirring the whole time, until hazelnut brown. Tip them onto a plate right away.
3. Boil 4 quarts of water with 1 tbsp salt. No oil in the water.
4. Warm 4 tbsp oil with the garlic on low until pale gold. Melt in the anchovies and chili. Off the heat.
5. Cook the spaghetti 1–2 minutes less than the box says. Save a cup of pasta water. Don't rinse.
6. Toss the pasta in the garlic pan with ½ cup pasta water until glossy. Add parsley and half the crumbs.
7. The rest of the crumbs go on at the table, so they stay crunchy.

NONNA'S RULES
Garlic goes gold, never brown.
Keep the pasta water.
Crumbs on at the table, never in the pot.