OLIVE and ARTICHOKE PASTA

Olive and Artichoke Pasta Sauce

A bold and flavorful meatless meal

Olive and artichoke pasta sauce is a quintessential meatless Mediterranean meal. Warmed olive oil with garlic plays host to artichoke hearts and your favorite olives. This simple combination of ingredients delivers more than just a bright briny flavor, the nutritional values are pretty interesting too.

Our recipe for olive and artichoke pasta is made with a handful of ingredients in less than a half hour. If you keep some bottled or canned olives and artichokes in your cabinet you can have a lunch, dinner or late night meal in no time. That’s assuming you have olive oil, garlic and pasta on hand. I do. Those 3 basic ingredients can be a meal in itself or become part of a good number of my meals.

This is one of Ricky’s recipes, as so many of our Mediterranean meals are. He is a lifelong friend and comes by his love of food, family and cooking by way of his heritage. He is 100% Sicilian and grew up at the stove watching his mother cook. His mother Tess was a fantastic cook. Fortunately for me, she was happy to take me under her wing and show me how she cooked. She taught me so much.

Do you like Olives?

Okay, right up front, I know not everyone likes olives and if you don’t, this sauce is not for you. Olives are a very prominent flavor in this sauce. The artichoke hearts, garlic and pasta are more or less supporting actors 🎭. But if olives and artichoke hearts are up your alley and you are looking for a new and different pasta sauce, give this a try.

It is the Kalamata olive that reels me in. They are juicy and bursting with salty briny flavor. Kalamata olives are always what I use in this recipe.

Cooking for an audience of 1

For the home dinner maker, it can be a real bummer to have a recipe that you like a lot but your family doesn’t. You have to decide if you have to make one dinner for yourself, and another for your other family members or just chuck the idea of having it. Most dinner cooks I know have the same solution to that dilemma. We have what we are making for everyone else.

If I am inviting someone to lunch or dinner, I sometimes ask if they are game to try this pasta dish. I don’t get a lot of yes’s.

Who eats what

My BFF, my gal pal, my partner in crime, Jannette likes our olive and artichoke pasta.

I can only hope it is true that you are judged by the company you keep, because my three best friends of over 55 years, while very different from each other in many ways, have some exceptional things in common. They are fiercely loyal; you wouldn’t want to mess with anyone they have brought into their inner circle of family and friends. Underneath a demure presence, they are as strong as steel. They would would give it all for a loved one in need, without a second thought. I have been truly blessed to have had each of them in my life. As best friends do, they have been there for me through thick and thin.

I have written about my bestie Doreen in our AMERICAN CHOP SUEY post and in Steaming …. Fully Exposed. She and I have been friends since we were 2.

Jannette and I met later in life; our late teens 🤗. I was ready to spread my wings and fly, and Jannette was ready to fly right along with me. She and I were looking for adventure. If I said “let’s” she said “go”. We were in it together, till the end, regardless of what hairbrained thing we thought sounded like a good idea. So it doesn’t surprise me that if anyone in my life is going to be willing to try a strange, salty, bold flavored dish, it would be my adventure loving, “I am in” BFF Jannette.

Can food choice tell something about you??

It leaves me wondering. Are personality traits and food preferences linked? 🤔 Should we be asking new friends and love interests what their favorite meal is? Is there a story told, if they like hot and spicy foods or rich and creamy foods, or bold and salty foods, or tomato soup from a can? Hummm..

Are you ready for a bold culinary adventure?

For all of you that are willing to venture into the culinary world of bold and briny, olive and artichoke hearts over pasta won’t disappoint. It is delicious. And ready in no time!

Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:

About the ingredients

Olive Oil

Use the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can afford in this sauce. Extra virgin olive oil is extracted from olives in their first press so it is the most flavorful and the least processed. I am not saying you need the best money can buy if you are on a budget, but a decent quality extra virgin olive oil will add a nice flavor.

When you are making a recipe that has a minimal amount of ingredients the flavor of each is more important to the finished product. In this dish, like most olive oil based pasta sauces, the olive oil is a major player in the flavor profile. We are going to be sautéing our sauce on medium heat and one of the reasons for this lower than usual temperature is to preserve the flavor of the olive oil.

Olives

Use any type of olive or combination of olives you like. If you are using olives that have not been pitted before you buy them, take the pits out before putting them in the sauce. I use Kalamata and that is what is pictured in this post. I suggest using 8 to 12 ounces. You can judge for yourself.

Artichokes

You can use any size can or bottle of artichoke hearts. It doesn’t matter. They can be whole or already cut in half or quarters. We use artichokes that are not marinated, but if you like marinated artichoke hearts, use them.

Salt

Because the ingredients in this recipe are salty to begin with, don’t use more than the 1/2 teaspoon of salt called for when cooking. If you find you want more salt when you are eating it, you can add it then. Too little salt is much better than too much, always.

Pasta

This recipe is best with one of the string pastas, like angel hair, linguini or regular spaghetti. You can use dried or fresh pasta. Use only as much as you need.

The olive oil sauce is a thin sauce, so the string pastas can deliver the goods with a twirl.

Grated parmesan cheese

Finishing the sauce with grated parmesan cheese or adding some to your individual serving turns up all the flavors in this dish. Because the flavor shines through, freshly grating some parmesan from the block is the best choice. Your next best alternative is a grated or shredded cheese cheese found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

The dried and bottled cheese you find on the shelf is not a good alternative, especially in a recipe with so few ingredients.

This is WHAT TO DO:

Prepare the ingredients

Cut and pit the olives

Drain the olives (remove the pit if necessary) and cut them in half lengthwise. Drain the artichoke hearts and cut them in half or quarters if you bought them whole. I do not rinse the olives or artichokes after I have drained them. The little bit of the packing liquid that remains can be added to the sauce. It adds a little more zip and briny saltiness. In fact I sometimes add a couple of tablespoons of the olive liquid to the sauce while I am cooking it.

Mince the garlic cloves

In a recipe which has a lot of the flavor coming from garlic like in this sauce, I always recommend using fresh cloves. You could use jarred minced or chopped garlic in this recipe if you rather, just make sure to check the equivalent amounts before adding. It is easy to overdose your dish with garlic if you are just guessing or if you are using a teaspoon of your tableware instead of an actual measuring spoon. If you are not sure about cooking with garlic, we have a tidbit post to give you a brief rundown All About Garlic.

Grate the cheese if you are going to add it to the pasta sauce before serving

If you want to add grated parmesan cheese to the sauce before serving, add it at the very end, after you have added the pasta to the sauce and it is off the heat.

Otherwise you can add grated cheese to your individual serving if you like.

Time to cook the olive and artichoke sauce

Start by warming the olive oil and garlic in a 10 or 12 inch skillet on medium heat for a minute or two so your oil can picked up the garlic flavor.

Add the olives, artichoke hearts, salt and pepper. Simmer mixture for about 20 minutes on medium or medium low heat, stirring gently but frequently. You are not cooking anything in the mixture, just melding the flavors. Don’t let the ingredients get dry in the skillet. If you find this happening, drizzle more olive oil in the skillet.

Cook the pasta

Thinner string pastas are best for this dish.

While simmering the olive/artichoke mixture, cook your pasta as directed on the package. Time accordingly, so the sauce and pasta will be done about the same time.

In many simple sauces, pasta water becomes an ingredient. While boiling pasta the starch leeches out into the salted water and that salted and starchy water can thicken and flavor a sauce.

Final step

Transfer your cooked pasta to the skillet with the olive and artichoke sauce using tongs or a pasta fork. While transferring the pasta bring some of the pasta water with it. In other words, there is no need to let the water drain from the tongs or fork before adding it to the sauce. Let the sauce and pasta warm up in the skillet for a couple of minutes before serving to let the pasta soak up the sauce and the pasta water thicken the sauce a little.

If you are going to add the grated parmesan cheese to the pasta before serving, now is when to slowly fold it in the pasta and sauce. Start by adding about 1/4 cup. If you want more it’s probably best to add it to your single serving. Too much cheese in a thin sauce like this can make the pasta clump together when you add it to the warm skillet. I prefer not adding the cheese to the skillet, but rather adding it in my single serving before eating. SO GOOD!

Serve