An Italian woman cooked me a simple meal once that consisted of nothing but fettuccini fried in olive oil with garlic and red papers. Somehow she made the fettuccini crisp almost like chow mien noodles, but not burned. I watched her do it, and there was no trick but knowing the exact temperature and time for cooking the noodles. With a little parmesan cheese, it was unbelievably tasty.
She had probably done it many times. The best cooking is usually simple things done perfectly, from much practice.
JT