Greek Pasta

So this is a little different but god bless pasta - you really can do anything with it.

I don’t know about you but I often find that people bring me lovely jars of olives as a gift, you know the kind - posh labels and often stuffed. If you don’t serve them straight away you often forget about them or think they are too good for cooking with. Reverse NOTIONS!

So recently I recieved a jar of delicious big fat Green olives and I decided to see what I could whip up with not a lot in the way of other ingredients. Feta lasts for so long as does halloumi so I always keep one or the other in the fridge - I had Feta so that with Olives is why I’m heading in a Greek flavour direction but with a bit of heat for that extra zing.

300g Fusilli or similar pasta

200g/250g drained olives lightly crushed

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 large cloves garlic crushed

Feta Cheese cubed

1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

Liberal Black Pepper

1/4 teaspoon oregano

Boil the kettle for your pasta and while its boiling drain and crush your olives and peel your 2 cloves of Garlic.

Add your boiling water to the saucepan and once it is back to the boil add your pasta to cook - give it a bit less time as this will be nicer al dente and you don’t want it to fall to mush when you mix all the other ingredients in.

Add the oil to a small pan and get a a bit of heat into the oil before adding your crushed olives. Give them a couple of minutes and then turn the heat off and add your crushed garlic, lemon juice and chilli flakes and a 1/4 teaspoon of oregano.

Before you drain your pasta make sure to reserve about half a cup of the water.

Add your drained pasta back to its saucepan and immediately add your pasta water and stir then add your mixture and plenty of black pepper and the feta cheese and stir well again. the Feta should melt a bit but not fully.