This week for the thirty-seventh recipe I've made for Thirty Minute Thursdays, cooking our way through Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta book I made Spaghetti alle Olive (Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Olives) on page 67.
The ingredient list: fresh tomatoes, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt, Kalamata olives, and spaghetti.
I needed a quick side dish to go with a chicken recipe and had on hand fresh tomatoes and Kalamata olives, so this became the side dish in short order as it takes very little time to make.
The recipes in this book often call for fresh tomatoes that are peeled...the quickest way I know to do this is to set a pan of water on the stove, bring to a boil, drop in the tomatoes for 3-4 minutes, and then place them immediately into a bowl of cold water. The skin just slides off in a couple of large pieces and you are good to go (it's how I peel peaches, too). I often do this in the boiling pasta water, depending on how long the recipe wants you to cook down the tomatoes for the sauce. This time it was perfect timing.
This was not Mark's favorite for some reason, maybe because he is not that big a fan of Kalamata olives "in" things...he likes to eat them plain but doesn't care for them "in" things...rather like the nut issue around here. I thought it was delightful and I would make it again in small size for myself another time. Here's Margaret's post from the book this week.
