Following the trend of Simple and Delicious Daily Recipes, I present to you the Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes and Taggiasca Olives! I’ve added a few cubes of Greek feta that I bought yesterday morning to make the recipe for Pasta with Zucchini and Feta that I posted this morning on the Facebook fan page. You can subscribe by clicking here if you’re not yet among the 16,350 current followers!!!
Returning to the pasta with Taggiasca olives and cherry tomatoes that I’m presenting today, I have two secrets to reveal.
The first: it was my father’s favorite pasta when I cooked at home before he moved in with his partner. Cherry tomatoes, whether they were pachino, datterini, or cherry, were always fine, and olives could be either green olives or Taggiasca olives. Since it was me cooking, black olives weren’t on the menu, as I don’t eat them, which is why you won’t find any recipes with black olives. The version with black olives of this main course is the classic Greek pasta, a dish to be enjoyed cold with cherry tomatoes, black olives, and feta.
The second: a wooden spoon for gently stirring, a splash of white wine, fresh thyme, and 10 minutes of time! This is Mom’s secret! When she forgot to prepare the sauce, at home or at the restaurant, she’d rush to the pantry, pull out some tomatoes, preferably a few days advanced in ripening. Then she’d grab the jar of Taggiasca olives and snatch the fresh thyme (also marjoram but for other recipes) from her ex-mother-in-law’s garden, or Nonna Sandra’s!
Two worlds so different, so distant, that even today I struggle to understand many things, but fortunately, from their union, I was born! So let’s grab the necessary ingredients and prepare this flavorful and tasty summer main course! The pasta with cherry tomatoes and feta with Taggiasca olives can, of course, be prepared all year round, although you should always prefer seasonal fruits and vegetables, but no one will forbid or judge you. That said, let’s grab a non-stick pan, a pot to boil water, and start the recipe!
Oh, I almost forgot, below you’ll find other summer main course recipes and feta recipes since you’ll have some left in the fridge after this recipe:
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 2 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 271.82 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 36.61 (g) of which sugars 5.31 (g)
- Proteins 7.36 (g)
- Fat 9.31 (g) of which saturated 1.84 (g)of which unsaturated 2.72 (g)
- Fibers 3.29 (g)
- Sodium 682.63 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 150 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 7.05 oz pasta (of your choice, for me penne rigate forever)
- 10 cherry tomatoes (in my case pachino)
- 20 Taggiasca olives
- to taste onion (very little and finely chopped)
- to taste thyme (fresh)
- 10 cubes feta
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 2 tablespoons white wine
Tools
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Pot
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Wooden spoon
- 1 Colander
If you want the Wooden Spoon or the Wooden Spatula with the Le Ricette di Bea Logo, you can write in the recipe comments or in the blog’s social chats!
Steps
We begin the preparation of pasta with Taggiasca olives and cherry tomatoes by cutting the latter with a well-sharpened knife without teeth on a wooden cutting board. Why shouldn’t the knife have teeth? Mom would answer: because yes, who is the chef?! I, on the other hand, explain that after years of tomato stains on shirts or aprons, I realized it was all due to the wrong blade. In fact, a nicely sharpened knife, without teeth, allows for a clean cut that doesn’t create tomato fireworks.
Once the pachino tomatoes, or other types such as datterino or cherry, are cut, we can proceed to finely chop the onion. Not much will be needed, we’re not making a ragù soffritto. We just need to remind ourselves of the onion’s scent and thus of the tomato sauce in our pasta dish. Let’s turn on the stove.
Actually, turn on the stoves! One to boil the pasta of your chosen format and one to prepare the tomato and Taggiasca olive sauce.
So let’s pour a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil into the non-stick pan. Then, we put the onion to sauté until it’s completely wilted. It should become transparent, colorless. At this point, we add a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme. Let it release its typical fragrance for a few moments, and it will become a bright green.
Now we add the cherry tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and black pepper, and let them go for about 5 minutes. Main rule: don’t stir the cherry tomatoes until I tell you to! At most, if you know how to do it, otherwise you risk dirtying the entire kitchen, you can flip the tomatoes in the pan with the classic wrist movement. One day I’ll make a video to show you how, as many of you ask in chat. After this initial cooking time, it’s time to deglaze with white wine, so add the two tablespoons indicated in the ingredients list and let it go. More or less another 5 minutes.
After this time, we can add the previously drained Taggiasca olives from the brine. Again, add the olives but don’t stir with the spoon, we’ll need it later. Just be careful not to let the stove flame go high, this is the only crucial point of the recipe.
The cherry tomatoes will release the right color for this main dish only if they have time to wilt without breaking down. The trick, therefore, besides not stirring, is to manage the flame. At this point, the water for cooking the pasta should be boiling. So let’s proceed with throwing the pasta into the pot and lower the flame of our cherry tomato sauce to the minimum.
In the meantime, let’s take the Greek feta and cut it into many small cubes. You can also buy feta already in cubes, which will obviously be larger than the ones you see in the photo. It’s up to you!
Then drain the pasta and quickly toss it into the pan with the sauce. Now take the spoon, give it a quick stir to color the penne or the pasta format you chose. As a good student of Roberta, I toss everything with jumps worthy of the Circo Tachimiri as Mom would say. I’ve seen shrimp pirouetting in her kitchen, graceful like acrobats.
I didn’t mention the feta because I add it after plating the pasta. So completely cold, without letting it melt in the pan with the sauce. But if you prefer, you can do it to get the classic “telephone effect” typical of the 80s. Let’s serve our nice main dish with pachino tomatoes and Taggiasca olives to our family or guests. I just have to remind you that I await you every day on the blog’s social channels with lots of food content and, of course, the Recipe of the Day. Enjoy your meal!!!
Variations and Tips:
Regarding variations, as previously mentioned, you can choose different pasta cuts, from short to long.
Change the type of cherry tomato, from pachino, to datterini, to cherry.
Add or omit feta or, as suggested by my colleague Silvia, the line cheese ideal for those who are attentive to a healthy and balanced diet. Or simply like her, who doesn’t particularly like Greek feta. I can also recommend fresh cheese primo sale that I’ve already tested over the years for this recipe.
