Easy Olive Oil Mediterranean Pasta
So quick to make and full of fresh and bright flavor.
you're making mealtime meaningful.
The magic of pasta is that you can throw together a meal in just a matter of minutes that still manages to have layers of delicious flavor. That’s exactly the sort of magic that this Easy Olive Oil Mediterranean Pasta holds. It’s the type of pasta that’s done in just about as long as it takes to boil the noodles (in other words, there’s no sauce to make), but thanks to a bunch of Mediterranean-inspired additions is full of fresh and bright flavor.
This quick dish is every bit as easy as tossing some spaghetti with some jarred marinara, but it’s so much more interesting. Instead of building an elaborate sauce or relying on a pre-made one, all you’re doing here is quickly cooking some garlic in some olive oil so that it becomes infused with the flavor and then adding some spinach, green onion, and cherry tomatoes just long enough to warm through. That garlic-infused oil is the sauce, so all you have to do later is toss everything together.
But the flavor doesn’t stop there. You can switch up the ingredients with whatever you have on hand, but here we have chopped artichoke hearts and kalamata olives…
… plus some crumbled feta, fresh basil, and pine nuts, and a bit of lemon and red chile flake for some extra zest.
For something so incredibly quick and easy to make, it sure is packed with fresh and bright flavor. It’s not the type of pasta that’s laden with cream or butter, instead, it relies on healthy add-ins and garlic-kissed olive oil so you can get a dinner on the table quickly that you can feel good about.
Olive Oil Mediterranean Pasta
Yield(s): Serves 4
5m prep time
15m cook time
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 1 lb thin spaghetti or angel hair
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 cup baby spinach, torn, if desired
- 12 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3 green onions, whites and greens chopped
- 6 oz artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
- 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3/4 cup fresh basil, torn
- Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta according to package directions.
- When pasta is almost cooked, heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Lower heat and add garlic along with a pinch of salt. Cook for a few seconds, stirring frequently.
- Add spinach, tomatoes, and green onion and cook until just warmed through, about 30 seconds.
- Pour over drained pasta and toss to coat. Add artichokes, olives, feta, pine nuts, lemon zest, basil, red pepper flake, and salt and pepper and toss once more. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from The Mediterranean Dish.