A little salty, a little heat, and just a hint of sweet – Olives & Greens in Angry Sauce

This easy sauce recipe you can toss with your favorite dry pasta or with one you learned at our cooking class.

Ciao to all the new Bellos and Bellas , and the 800 members of the Famiglia!
I hope you’ve been enjoying this sun, because Spring has sprung! I love alliteration. Because it has been so nice, even on the so called rainy days, I will keep it short so we can all get back to building up our Vitamin D levels.

My recipe this month begins to wake up the taste buds after Winter’s rich foods. Plus it’s a healthy, fast and tasty vegetarian recipe that’s perfect for Spring. PS I’m not vegetarian but much of Italian cooking & food is.

By the way, thanks all! My Vancouver cooking classes are 90% sold-out so I’ve added fresh Pasta making on Saturday, April 27th. On the day before Mother’s Day, I added Hands on Pasta 2 – Puglia Style which is where you learn to make the Gnochetti Sardi pictured below. A perfect gift for Mamma. Book your Spots

My Ma would love cooking this dish. Braising greens in tomato sauce is a classic way of preparing them in Lazio where my parents are from. In this sauce I combine 3 of my favorite ingredients to wake up your mouth; chili flakes, olives and greens.

I find the olives and their briny flavour adds a ton of punch. The chili flakes add just enough heat to keep you coming back for more. The greens can add bitterness with dandelion, richness with spinach, or sweetness with Swiss chard. Whichever green comes up first in your garden add it. The tomatoes round it out adding sweetness, acidity, and umami.

Time to put your apron on and get dirty with this easy sauce recipe. Please reach out with any, how to cook, questions you may have. Now go make dinner and #EawthwiththoseyouLove TM

Olives & Greens in Angry Sauce

Italian Recipe by Peter Ciuffa of Pasta Boy Peter

As with any recipe always use safe cooking procedures, & food safe practices. Health Canada is a great site for all food safe guidelines. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/topics/food-safety.html

Ingredients:

Serves 4

• 1 bag of a Good Bronze Extruded Pasta or your home made orechietti, cavatelli or gnochetti sardi (Check out Wikipedia’s history of it)
• 200g of canned Italian or Californian Cherry tomatoes Approx ¼ of a large can. I also like Plum or San Marzano tomatoes. You can also use a Passata or tomato puree, Italian or otherwise, but your sauce will be a bit more liquid. When in season look for fresh Cherry tomatoes.
• 1/2 cup of tender or baby greens. I like bitter greens like arugula or dandelion, but you can use any baby green like spinach or kale for richness or swiss chard for sweetness.
• 2 cloves of finely minced garlic
• 1/2 cup of pitted olives roughly chopped or sliced
• 4 Tbsp extra-virgin Italian olive oil
• Peperoncini (Red Chili Flakes) to taste. The more you add the angrier it gets!

Sauce:

• Add olive oil to a frying pan and set to a medium heat
• Add the garlic and sauté for 3 minutes making sure the garlic does not burn. Add the chili flakes and cook another minute. Stir occasionally making sure neither ingredient burns.
• Add the the olives & sauté for 2 min.
• Add the greens & sauté for 2 min or until they start to wilt.
• Add the tomatoes
• Turn the frying pan up to a medium high heat
• When the sauce has begun to bubble/boil (usually within 3 minutes) Turn to low and continue to simmer
• This is when I put the pasta in the boiling water as your sauce is essentially done.
• Add salt and pepper to taste at this point. Do not add it at the beginning because the olives are salty and as the sauce cooks down it will absorb some of that salt. Toss it with good pasta and always remember to #EatwiththoseyouLove TM

Pasta:

• Start with 4 liters of unsalted water boiling in a large pot. Start the water boiling before starting the sauce so you are ready to put the pasta in when the sauce is almost done. Add a 1 TBSP of sea salt to season the water.
• When the water has reached a rolling boil it is ready for pasta.
• Follow Directions for cooking on the bag. Remember to stir immediately when adding the pasta and occasionally after.

Finishing touches:

• Bringing pasta and sauce together!
• Check your sauce & when it has a good aroma & has thickened, it is ready.
• Add a quarter of a ladle of the pasta water to the sauce and stir it in
• Once the 2 minutes are up, the pasta should be nearly ready (it should be slightly harder than Al Dente)
• Save & set aside another quarter ladle of pasta water
• Strain the pasta well and add it to the sauce. Toss or stir the pasta in the sauce for the next 1-1.5 minutes.
• After the 1-1.5 minutes have passed, taste the pasta to make sure it is Al Dente if not add the saved pasta water & cook another 30 seconds to 1 minute
• Serve with pecorino cheese if you can but parmesean will do in a pinch.

An easy sauce recipe that is tasty & healthy peasant cooking in 15 to 20 minutes! If you like this one please share, like and comment then join us for a cooking class in Vancouver.

You can watch me make a quick version of this on Global TV.

If you are eating the Pasta Boy Peter way, you cook and always #EatwiththoseyouLove TM

Pasta Boy Peter Inc. 2019