Recipe Olive pasta

[Herbaceous]

This is one of my all-time favourite, go-to pasta dishes. It’s adaptable and uses common pantry ingredients most people have on hand. This can be easily made vegan by omitting the cheese. This recipe is adapted from an old cookbook called Regina’s Vegetarian Table.

Ingredients

8 oz dry pasta - rotini or penne are nice
1/2 cup quartered green olives
1/2 cup quartered black olives
2/3 cup chopped bell peppers (I like to use a couple different colours to make it pretty)
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
1-1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2-3 dashes paprika
2-3 dashes cayenne pepper
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes for garnish (optional)

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and keep warm. Saute the olives, peppers, and tomatoes over medium heat in a bit of olive oil until they start to soften (4-5 min). Add the olive oil, stir, and keep cooking for another few seconds. Mix the flour with the paprika & cayenne, then sprinkle over the olive/pepper mixture. Stir, then add the cooked pasta and cheese and stir again. Serve garnished with cherry tomatoes, if desired.

 

[TastyReuben]

Bookmarked!

 

[Morning Glory]

I love olives in pasta - Puttanesca is a classic example. I'm curious - please don't take this as a criticism but I've never seen flour added to a Mediterranean style pasta sauce (or really any pasta sauce except béchamel based ones as in macaroni cheese). I presume its to thicken it? But doesn't it turn the sauce sort of odd coloured? I mean, you have vibrant colours with the tomatoes, olives and peppers...

Normally, pasta sauces are thickened slightly by splashing a little of the pasta cooking water into the pan.

 

[Herbaceous]

The flour does thicken it a bit, but there’s no discoloration (unless you use whole-wheat flour). The flour sort of brings it all together so it’s not just a bunch of veggies and pasta sitting in a puddle of olive oil.

This the only pasta I’ve ever made that uses this sort of olive oil + flour sauce. It doesn’t get really thick, but I think the flour helps the oil to sort of coat the olives and pasta. I’d encourage you to give it a try and see what you think! It’s also very customizable - we sometimes add asparagus pieces, broccoli - whatever we’ve got hanging out in the fridge.

 

[garlichead]

I love olives in pasta - Puttanesca is a classic example. I'm curious - please don't take this as a criticism but I've never seen flour added to a Mediterranean style pasta sauce (or really any pasta sauce except béchamel based ones as in macaroni cheese). I presume its to thicken it? But doesn't it turn the sauce sort of odd coloured? I mean, you have vibrant colours with the tomatoes, olives and peppers...

Normally, pasta sauces are thickened slightly by splashing a little of the pasta cooking water into the pan.

Each to their own but it wouldn't be something I would do. I would probably cook the peppers much longer as well as adding the cherry tomatoes at this time which will emit more liquid into the pan using less overall oil as well and allowing an emulsification to take place and tweaking with the parmesan and pasta water to a preferred thickness, it been done that way for centuries and personally don't find flour to be a good alternative, but again that doesn't mean that flour can't be used or someone wouldn't find that method better. Cheers

 

[Herbaceous]

I made this tonight, here’s a pic of the finished dish: