I am an expert of the field of minimal effort cooking. Mostly this happens on days when I’m just cooking for myself (or at the end of busy, crazy days, or lazy ones). I threw together this light and tasty pasta in about 5 minutes the other night and man, it was good!
You could use any kind of olives in this, but I happened to have some Castelvetrano olives on hand so i used those. I recently discovered these and it was love at first taste! They are bright green and round, and very mild and a bit nutty in flavor. If your grocery store has an olive bar, that will probably be your best bet if you’re interested in picking some up, but I do occasionally see a jar of them here and there as well. If you can’t find them, feel free to sub the olive of your choice.
5-Minute Capellini with Tomatoes and Olives
5-Minute Capellini with Tomatoes and Olives
Capellini or angel hair pasta
3-4 vine ripened tomatoes, diced
Handful of olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, very thinly sliced or minced
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Parmesan or feta cheese (optional)
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil while you heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the skillet. Toss in the pasta and keep an eye on it. Capellini is very thin; it will only take about 4 minutes to cook. While the pasta is cooking, saute the garlic in olive oil for about 30 seconds, until fragrant but not browned. Add tomatoes and olives. Turn heat down to low and give the mixture an occasional stir until the pasta is ready. You really don’t need to cook the veggies much, mostly you are just heating them up and letting some of their juices release and combine to make it a little more saucy.
Just a little mingle in the heat to really bring out the flavor.
Taste and add a pinch of salt and pepper if needed (depending on the type of olives you use, you may not need much salt at all, if any). Drain pasta (reserve a bit of the pasta water) and toss with tomato mixture. If pasta seems dry you can add in a little bit of the reserved pasta water or drizzle with a touch of olive oil. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of parmesan or feta if desired.
3hungrymonkeys 