Olive & tomato pasta
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Ingredients
kamalata olives, baby plum
tomatoes, mozarella pearls, honey, basil oil, peas, linguine |
I know that my cooking seems to be absurdly diverse, but you may notice that there is a distinct pattern to my posts. Almost every flavour combination that I discover winds up being tossed with pasta when I have leftovers - I should change the name of this blog to Everything Goes With Pasta! When I made the tomato and olive bruschetta earlier this week, I knew exactly how the remaining tapenade-like mixture would meet its fate though it did give me pause. When I was a child there was a trend in the post-Thatcher days to mix peas and sweetcorn with EVERYTHING to bulk out a spaghetti bolognaise or some rice and quite honestly I see peas mixed with a tomato-based sauce and want to run screaming from the room with a petulant "not again mummy!". The truth is that peas do go so wonderfully with pasta because the freshness cuts through a heavy cheese based sauce. In this cause I'm using cheese with the peas as a method to cut through the heavy olive-based sauce - mozarella pearls are wonderful here.
1) Put the linguine on to boil. A smooth linguine will take 8 - 10 minutes in salted water, if the linguine is dusted with polenta it will more likely take 11-12 minutes to become soft and pliable.
2) Add the peas during the last 2 minutes (if cooking from frozen - if cooking with shelled peas, 5-7 minutes should do, once they turn colour you only need another minute).
3) Once the pasta has been cooked (either taste a strand, or chuck it at the wall - if it sticks, it's done!), strain and toss in a pan with a few spoons of the remaining olive and tomato sauce and some mozarella pearls. Warm through in the pan, stirring continually until the pasta has become coated.
And serve!
