Easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss
Super-simple, colorful, and flavorful, this Easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss with Feta crumbles is a great meatless main dish or side.
I absolutely love olives, and this super-easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss is one of my absolute favorite ways to enjoy them. In fact, it's one of my go-to meals when I want something quick and easy, and totally flavorful. (And it's totally colorful, too!)
Seriously, if you can chop and boil water, you can make this dish.
But let's take a little aside to talk about a funny story about olives for a minute, okay? Having grown up in Vermont and now living in North Carolina, I had never seen olives growing until my Mom and I took a trip to Northern California wine country a few years back.
While roaming out-and-about visiting Sonoma wineries, we drove by acres upon acres of olive trees growing ... just like you'd see peach or apple trees growing in orchards here in the southeast. We'd never seen olives growing, and we were in awe!
Well ... being the "curious"-type that we are, we decided to pull the car over and
Seriously, if you can chop and boil water, you can make this dish.
Well, did you know olives have to be curred before you eat them?
We didn't. But now we sure do.
Because we learned the hard way.
Well, I guess actually, my Mom learned the hard way.
See, when she got in the car and handed me my olive, I proceeded to drop it on the floor. In the five seconds or so I was fumbling around the floorboard trying to find my olive, my Mom popped hers in her mouth.
Those precious five seconds of fumbling saved me - Saved me from a horrible olive experience.
Though I can't say from personal experience, since the sound coming out of my Mom's mouth caused me to not pop my olive in my mouth ... apparently, uncurred olives straight off the tree taste awful. As for what exactly they taste like? - You'll have to ask my Mom.
So, the moral of this story is - Eat your olives curred by a professional. Let's just trust my Mom on that, okay?
Now, remember I said that if you can chop and boil water, you can make this dish? I'm totally serious. The only thing you have to cook to make this is the pasta.
Cut some sweet bell peppers in strips and place them in the bottom of the colander you'll use to drain your cooked pasta. The boiling water will "cook" the peppers just a little bit.
To get started, you first go ahead and get your salted water going for cooking your pasta. Cook the pasta as directed on the package.
While the pasta's cooking, cut some sweet bell peppers in strips and place them in the bottom of the colander you'll use to drain your cooked pasta.
Yes, place the pepper strips in your colander, like this:
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it right over the peppers in your colander ... like this:
The boiling water from cooking the pasta will "cook" the peppers just a little bit, basically blanching them so they soften a teeny bit, but keep some crispness and their vibrant color.
And that's all the cooking required for this dish. Seriously.
The rest of this dish's prep is simple chopping.
The freshness of the still-crisp bell peppers, sweetness of the grape tomatoes, saltiness from the sliced olives, and tang of the feta cheese crumbles combine to create one very tasty dish.
And there you have super colorful, super flavorful, and super easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss! Complete with really yummy cured olives.
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Yield: about 6 servings
Easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss
Super-simple, colorful, and flavorful, this Easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss with Feta crumbles is a great meatless main dish or side.
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 20 Mtotal time: 35 M
ingredients:
- About 10 oz. penne or other pasta
- 2 large red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
- 1 ¼ c. halved grape or cherry tomatoes (about 1 pint)
- 3/4 c. sliced olives (green Manzanilla, kalamata, or a mix)
- About 3/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
- 1 (4 oz.) package feta cheese crumbles with basil & sun dried tomatoes (OR with Mediterranean herbs)
- About 3 T. extra virgin olive oil
instructions:
How to cook Easy Pepper & Olive Pasta Toss
- Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions.
- Cut bell peppers into thin strips. Place the pepper strips in a colander; drain the pasta over the pepper to just cook it slightly with the hot pasta water.
- Place drained pasta and peppers in a large bowl. Add halved grape tomatoes, sliced olives, chopped parsley, and feta cheese crumbles; toss gently to combine.
- Drizzle with olive oil, and toss gently to coat.
Source: Adapted from Cooking Light magazine
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