Thursday, February 7, 2008

Pasta with tomatoes, olives, grana padano and basil

Pasta with tomatoes, olives, grana padano and basil

Joao loves pasta but he’ll mostly have it with tomato or bolognese sauce. He tried pesto when I first made it and liked it, but still looks at other pasta possibilities very suspiciously. That’s silly and I always tell him that.

So when I choose different pasta recipes to try he goes all “I want mine with bolognese sauce, please” and I go “ok, same old pasta for you, mister”. I won’t force him - mom made me eat beef so many times as a kid and I never learned to like it.
But things seem to be slowly changing around here… Bill’s pasta smelled so great that while eating I noticed a fork “stealing” spaghetti from my plate. And it happened with this pasta dish, too: every time I looked at my plate there was less food there – the fork had attacked again! I looked at Joao with angry eyes but it didn’t work. :)

whb-two-year-icon

I adapted a recipe found on a Portuguese food magazine called Blue Cooking and this is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Ulrike, from Kuchenlatein.

Pasta with tomatoes, olives, grana padano and basil

Pasta with tomatoes, olives, grana padano and basil

400g short pasta – choose the one you like the most
60g black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
500g ripe tomatoes, cut in 8 parts each (half moons)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
rosemary leaves
½ cup (120ml) extra virgin olive oil + extra olive oil to drizzle
4 garlic cloves
200 grana padano cheese, in shavings
1 handful basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Lightly oil a baking dish and place the tomatoes on it; sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
Peel and cut the garlic cloves so there is one piece of garlic for each tomato slice. Place the garlic on the tomatoes, add some rosemary leaves on top, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are tender and the skin starts to blister. Remove from the oven, allow to cool then tear them into pieces. Set aside.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente.
Place the basil in a small bowl, add the ¼ cup olive oil and process using an immersion blender – I halved the recipe and made the basil oil using a mortar and a pestle; a small processor would do the job, too.
Drain the pasta, add the olives, the reserved tomatoes, the cheese and the basil oil and gently toss the ingredients together. Serve at once.

Serves 4

35 comments:

Sarah said...

What is grana padano cheese?
I bet the combination of olives and rosemary was so good in this pasta.

Anonymous said...

Nice simple flavours. Looks great.

Emily said...

Beautiful shells! I love the texture of this type of pasta. I'm with Sarah- what's grana padano cheese? Probably like a Parm or Romano?

Brilynn said...

I think I could eat pasta every night of the week and be perfectly happy!

Peter M said...

Sarah, Grana Padano is a more affordable Parmesan cheese.

Patricia, you inserted one new ingredient with an otherwise popular dish and made it fresh, noted for trying!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Aw, how can you be angry at someone who loves your cooking?! Glad to know that J's horizons are broadening, because this pasta dish looks delicious.

Aimée said...

Sounds like my kind of pasta, Patricia. We would probably be half way through the meal and my husband would go:"Hey, this is vegetarian!" And I would just giggle.

test it comm said...

A nice simple and tasty sounding pasta!

Manggy said...

Haha! Next time Joao attempts something like that, slap his wrist and tell him to open a jar of stinkin' bolgnese sauce :p (you rmom forced you to eat beef? I have never heard of that!)
I love the combination of flavors here, it's so fresh!

Cookie baker Lynn said...

Your pasta looks delicious. I would be seriously tempted to steal a forkful!

Anh said...

Yum! I love pasta like this! :)

Chibog in Chief said...

this pasta dish looks really tempting!! is it possible to substitute padana cheese with parmesan??

Mallow said...

I'm also intrigued by that cheese. What is it? Looks delicious (basil and rosemary...yum.)

Anonymous said...

You used ALL of my favorite ingredients, including olives! Mmmm!

Cynthia said...

I can imagine the mouthful of joy getting each of those ingredients onto a fork at once.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Oh, Patricia, this is my kind of comfort food. Love it!

Nemmie said...

A simple, fabulous pasta - my kind of dish :)

KJ said...

Lovely simple food.

Helene said...

Pasta....hmmmhmmmhmmm!!! Looks delicious and fresh!

Anonymous said...

Oh unfortunately I understand where Joao's coming from; I only have my pasta with tomato sauce, not venturing anywhere further than that :P But with a plate like this, who could resist stealing a forkful? [Or two!]

Maggie said...

Glad you are bringing Joao around to the joys of pasta sauce variations.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is a really quick and easy recipe, and very nutritious too!

ostwestwind said...

Grana Pradano is the best! Thanks for sharing this recipe for WHB with us.

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...

I really like black olives, tomatoes and rosemary together in pasta - you get flavors that are sweet, pungent and savory all at once.

Stella said...

Hello Pat!
It's been ages since I've last left a comment on your blog. And I wasn't surprised when I saw another delicious pasta dish of yours!:) You're the pasta master!

Cakespy said...

Simple but lovely, just how I like pastas.

Anonymous said...

You have angry eyes? I'd never believe it!
This looks delicious. I'd be stealing from your plate too.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Sarah, it has a delicious sharp flavor, but you can go with parmesan if you can't find it.

Peter, thank you for stopping by!

Emiline, you can use parmesan instead, it would work beautifully!

Bri, I agree with you!

Peter, thank you for helping the girls.

Lydia, he was being too greedy - I needed some pasta too! :) Just kidding, my friend.

Aimée, nice way of tricking the husbands into eating healthy food. :)

Kevin, thank you!

Mark, no canned food in my place, you know - but he certainly deserved it! :)
My mom wanted me to eat everything - too bad I only wanted the veggies and the fish. :)

Lynn, I would let you. :)

Anh, thank you, sweetie!

Dhanggit, I think it would be a wonderful substitution.

Mallow, it's sharp and strong, really good.

Hillary, have some! :)

Cynthia, they really worked together.

Susan, I love pasta too!

Nemmie, thank you, dear!

KJ, simple and fresh ingredients - good food. :)

Helen, thank you, darling!

Hi, sweetie! He's been learning to try new things... Maybe you're next! :)

Margaret, I'm trying. :)

Farhan, very easy and healthy!

Ulrike, I'm glad you like it!

T.W., I like black olives in just about anything. :)

Valentina, my dear friend, it's great to see you again!
xoxo

Cakespy, thank you!

Dayna, I'm a Scorpio, you know. I can be mean if I want to. :D

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

That pasta looks, so, so good! i would have to skip the olives though, I just can't get a taste for them. Lots of lovely flavours though!

Kalyn Denny said...

It looks great. I like every ingredient here, and I'm sure I'd like them combined too. Love the method of roasting the tomatoes with the garlic.

Anonymous said...

Good combination of a dish here!

Lisa said...

This is SO right up my alley. Delicious, delicious. Olives in there -- mmmm. Pretty photo too!

Abitofafoodie said...

Looks absolutely delicious - just mentally checking off the ingredients and think I have them all in stock... May give this a try for lunch!

flamingpie said...

you're just great..taking the time to post all these recepies!
I'from rome and any recepies you'd like just ask.:)

dulume said...

I'm sorry to say but Grana Padano is not a parmigian cheese, it's a parmigian-like cheese but sn't the genune one. That's why it's more affordable: it isn't one. It looks like it, is cooked like it but the distinguish flavour of parmigiano reggiano is just not there. Still a good cheese though.

Related Posts with Thumbnails