Olives will always hold a place on my top 5 favorite foods list. I’ve loved them for as long as I can remember. It began when, as kids, my sister and I would sneak black olives out of the can, place them on our fingers and dance around showing off our “olive hands.” We’d eat them off our fingers one by one and then beg for more. Of special interest was the fact that the brand of olives – Lindsay’s – shared a name with my sister and was even spelled the same way.
Since then the love has grown a bit more sophisticated but I’d still gobble plain black olives from a can any day. So as you can imagine, this pasta recipe got clipped pretty quickly as I flipped through the July/August Cook’s Illustrated. It was actually much better than I expected looking at the simple list of ingredients. MUCH better. The sauce looked wimpy but actually coated the pasta really well. Jeff’s favorite part was the breadcrumbs. Mine? I’ll give you one guess…
I made quite a few changes to this recipe, which I’m sure the folks over at Cook’s Illustrated wouldn’t really appreciate, given that they test their recipes over and over until they are perfect. Well. I omitted the anchovies and sun-dried tomatoes to accommodate our tastes. I was happy with breadcrumbs made from some sunflower bread we had… we’re lucky we had bread in the house at all and white sandwich bread does not ever make it into our shopping cart. I used whole-wheat regular-sized rigatoni and we loved it in this recipe, which isn’t always the case with whole-wheat pasta. Buon appetito!
Pasta with Olives, Garlic, and Herbs
Serves 4-6
5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
6 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tbsp. minced anchovy fillets (4-6 fillets)
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1/4-1/2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes
1/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into thin strips
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, rinsed and coarsely chopped
2 large slices white sandwich bread (about 3 oz.) torn into quarters
1 3/4 tsp. table salt
1 lb. mezze rigatoni or farfalle
2 oz. finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)
3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 1/2 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
ground black pepper
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Combine 3 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. garlic, anchovies, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives in medium bowl. Set aside.
Pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground, about 16 one-second pulses. Heat remaining 2 tbsp. oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, 4-6 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is fragrant and breadcrumbs are dark golden brown, 1-2 minutes longer. Transfer to plate to cool. Wipe out skillet with paper towels.
Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add rigatoni and remaining 1 1/2 tsp. salt. While pasta is cooking, return now-empty skillet to medium heat and add olive mixture. Cook until olive mixture has turned rusty red, 4-6 minutes. Remove 3/4 cup pasta cooking water from pot and add to skillet. Bring to simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat while pasta finishes cooking.
When pasta is just shy of al dente, drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water, and transfer back to Dutch oven. Add olive mixture to pasta and toss over medium heat until pasta absorbs most of liquid, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Adjust consistency of sauce with reserved pasta water (Sauce should cling to pasta but not be too loose or runny.) Remove pot from heat and stir in parsley and basil; adjust seasoning with pepper. Serve, passing lemon wedges, remaining Parmesan, and bread crumbs separately.
From Cook’s Illustrated
