Green Olive Pasta
A quick pasta dish that’s packed full of flavour!
This is the best pasta dish to throw together when you’re feeling lazy and you just want something tasty ASAP. It’s low on prep and uses pantry staples, making it my go-to recipe at the end of a busy day.
Low on effort and big on flavour!
Olives
Olives really deliver bang for buck with their punchy flavour and effortless preparation. This recipe also uses olive oil as the base for the sauce, which is packed full of antioxidants. What a win!
Lemon
This recipe uses zest and juice to give the dish a delightful zing and balance out all that rich olive oil and briney green olive.
Garlic and Chilli
The shortcut to deliciousness is always garlic, and it pairs so well here with chilli. You can use fresh garlic and chilli if you have it, but I’ve opted for minced garlic and chilli flakes to save on time (and effort!). It’s just as delish and cheap as chips!
More Healthy Recipe Ideas
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More Healthy Recipe Ideas 〰️
Recipe Variations
This pasta is also a great recipe for using up leftovers! I’ve chucked in some grated zucchini and a few lonely cherry tomatoes before, and they got along just fine.
These delish flavours create the perfect base, allowing you to get creative and add your favourite ingredients to this dish. Have some fun and make it your own!
Orecchiette Pasta with Green Olives and Chilli
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried orecchiette, or your favourite pasta
- 1 french shallot, or 1/2 brown onion
- 1 heaped teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
- 1 large lemon
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 jar (~200g) green Sicilian olives, pitted
- 1 handful fresh parsley (basil or dill also works beautifully)
- Olive oil, for cooking
Instructions
- Place a large pot of salted water onto a high heat and cover with a lid to help it come to a boil quickly. Once it is boiling, add your pasta.
- Drain and rinse the olives, then roughly chop them. Set aside.
- Wash the parsley thoroughly, then finely chop. Set aside.
- Zest the lemon and set the zest aside. Juice the lemon and set the juice aside.
- Place a large pan onto a medium-high heat and add a generous amount of olive oil.
- Finely dice the shallot and add to the pan. Allow to cook until the onion begins to colour, 1-2 minutes.
- Add the garlic and the chilli flakes, then turn the heat down to low. This will allow the flavours to get to know each other and infuse in the oil.
- About two minutes before your pasta has finished cooking, increase the heat to medium-high.
- Add the butter and allow it to melt and become fragrant. Now add the lemon zest and half of the lemon juice, stirring to combine.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and reserve some of the cooking water.
- Add the cooked pasta into the large pan and toss it through the sauce until the pasta is generously coated. If the pasta isn't coated well, you can add in a little of the reserved cooking water to help the sauce along.
- Stir through the chopped olives and fresh parsley, then have a little taste. Add the extra lemon juice if needed, and season with salt and pepper as you like.
- Pile the pasta into a bowl and tuck in!
