The starting point was a “Pasta Primavera” I had on a trip to the US in 1994. It was a new taste for me, with these grilled vegetables and lots of parmigiano. I gradually changed the recipe, adding and dropping ingredients, and today it is my favourite pasta dish.
What’s really important here is the quality of the ingredients - I usually go for cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes. Organic Roma tomatoes work fine as well. Just taste them. The tomato is one of the stars of this recipe, so you don’t want to use a watery, tasteless product here.
Tapenade is a Provençal dish, a kind of purée made of black olives, capres and olive oil. Watch out, some ready made tapenades contain anchovies. Organic supermarkets usually sell good vegetarian tapenades. If you don’t find it, it’s really easy to prepare it yourself. Just mix the ingredients in a blender.
- 1 cup black olives
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
The quality of the olives for the pasta dish is equally important - what works well are the French Picholine olives, black or green, but any other variety of high quality olives will do.
This recipe can be vegan or vegetarian, depending on whether you use parmigiano or not.
The quantities here are a sort of guidance only, feel free to play around!
Ingredients:
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4-6 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 kg (2.2 lbs) fresh tomatoes
- 4-6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1 zucchini, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olives (black or green)
- 1 tablespoon black tapenade
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- fresh basil leaves
- parmigiano, freshly grated (optional)
- pepper, salt
- a little red wine
- linguine or other pasta
1. Heat the olive oil (very low heat!), preferably in a cast iron skillet or pot. This gives a nice sauce. Add the chopped garlic. Leave the garlic to simmer for 10 minutes, but keep the heat very low. The garlic must not turn brown.
2. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes in halfs or quarters, take out the seeds and the flesh and chop them into small cubes. Put aside.
3. Add the chopped zucchini to the olive oil and garlic and let simmer for 10 minutes. Then add tapenade and tomato paste. Let simmer for another 10 minutes and add a bit of red wine. Add the sun dried tomatoes and olives. Another 5 minutes to simmer.
5. Finally, add the tomatoes and the fresh basil, and let it simmer for a maximum of 10 minutes (while the pasta cooks).
6. Serve with freshly grated parmigiano. If vegan, just garnish with a few basil leaves.
This dish is excellent with a crisp Côtes de Provence rosé.
The tapenade can also be served on toasted bread as an appetizer to the pasta!
