Author: Did you make the Olive & Sun-Dried Tomato Rustic Tapenade yet? Did you eat it all? I don't blame you if you ate it all, but if you did, you might want to make it again so you can make this scrumptious pasta! All you need is half of the tapenade to recipe, some cherry tomatoes, and some pine nuts and you end up with this glorious pasta dish. Such a simple weeknight meal, and it taste like you should be sitting in a tiny cafe in the heart of Italy.
The cherry tomatoes add a pop of sweet juiciness, the tapenade adds a whole shebang of flavour, then finish of the pasta with a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts for a creamy nutty yumminess. Now where's my fork?
I haven't tried this recipe with a store bought tapenade, but I am sure it would work great as well. Just beware that tapenades vary a lot in flavour and intensity, so you might want to start with a small amount of the tapenade and add more to taste.
To start, toast the pine nuts. Do this by putting them in a small pan over medium heat. Shake the pan and keep a careful eye on them as they tend to burn quickly. They will only need a couple of minutes. As soon as they get some golden colour, remove them from the heat.
Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, and finely mince the garlic. Put a pan that's large enough to hold all of your pasta over medium-high heat.
Sauté the cherry tomatoes in olive oil for about 5 minutes until they soften. Add the garlic and sauté one minute more.
Then add the tapenade and remove from the heat. Toss with the pasta, garnish with the toasted pine nuts, and badda bing, badda boom, pasta is ready!
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Tomato Tapenade & Pine Nut Pasta
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Ingredients
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes,, halved
- 2 cloves garlic,, minced
- ¾ cups olive & sun-dried tomato rustic tapenade, (about half the recipe)
- 4 cups short pasta, (such as penne, macaroni, bowties, or fusilli)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.
- Toast the pine nuts by heating them in a small pan over medium heat for a few minutes. Keep a careful eye on them as they can burn quickly. Shake the pan and as soon as they start getting golden colour on them, remove them from the heat and set aside.
- Heat a pan large enough to hold all the pasta over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and when hot add the cherry tomatoes. Be careful, the cherry tomatoes contain lots of water so the pan may spatter at you. Sauté the cherry tomatoes for about 5 minutes until they are softened. Add in the garlic and sauté one minute more. Stir in the tapenade and remove from the heat. Toss with hot pasta, sprinkle with the toasted pine nuts, and serve while hot.
Notes
Nutrition
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Bon Appetegan
Sam
Beata says
OMG! Was sort of looking to use up some produce in a more creative way, and turned to Sam, who keeps coming up with delicious ways to use it! We LOVE cherry tomatoes, but I just wanted something different, and there it was!
Most modern recipes are way too heavy on pasta and way too light on the sauce or toppings for us, so I typically halve the pasta amount AND double the sauce or toppings, to make the recipe the way we both like. While I did not measure my pasta in cups for this recipe, I knew that I wanted to use no more than 8 ounces of pasta. I also used the entire tapenade recipe (actually, made a bit more, because I did not measure the tapenade ingredients exactly; I just combined the amounts that looked good to me haha), because hello, that recipe looked just SO DAMN GOOD!
Made this pasta recipe almost as written, except throwing a bit of chopped serrano along with the garlic for some heat (and to use up that produce lol), and adding maybe 1/2 cup of pasta water to the pan, to loosen everything up and make a bit of liquid sauce. I used organic dry sundried tomatoes (soaked and drained beforehand), so my tapenade and the sauce were quite dark and not as pretty, but that's because the organic sundried tomatoes do not use these sulfur preservatives to make the tomatoes look so pretty. But who cares??? The 2 of us inhaled almost all of it in one sitting! There was a bit of leftovers that promptly disappeared the very next day, for lunch.
Even with making the tapenade just to make this dish, the whole shebang was so easy, and incredibly tasty. What a find - thank you so much, Sam!
Jess @ It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken says
Wonderful! We're so happy to hear that you enjoyed it so much! Thanks for sharing, Beata!
Judy Joseph says
can it be served cold?
Sam Turnbull @ It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken says
Yes! It would be delicious cold as a pasta salad as well. Enjoy!
Sally says
Hi - step 3 says “store in the tapenade.” Pretty sure you mean stir in?
Sam Turnbull says
Yes I did! 🙂
Gemini Xettigar says
I love your blog, your recipes are awesome and you make vegan cooking so easy. It's among the few vegan blogs that simplifies it all. I would like to share your recipes every time I cook your culinary masterpieceswith credits to you on Goan Foodomania only to showcase that meat free meals can be super tasty. Though Goan cuisine has amazing vegetarian food with a lot of it also being largely vegan, yet it being a coastal state , it doesn't get highlighted as much as the fish and meat based dishes. It is more effective to show how tasty meat and dairy free meals can be , sometimes instead of putting the ethical perspective. And , yes, you write so well too. I absolutely enjoy reading it. Gemini
Sam Turnbull says
Aww thanks so much Gemini! That is my goal, to make veganism easy. So happy you appreciate my blog so much, I love having you here. 😀
Kathy Sturr says
My favorite flavors and pasta, oh pasta how I can't give you up! Party AND pasta - life is good.
Sam says
Yes, I have to agree, your life is sounding pretty damn good right about now! haha.