Ramp up the olive oil flavour in this olive-walnut pasta

Texture, protein and deep umami flavour: this easy pasta dish has it all, says Ali Slagle

This dish is nicely finished with soft herbs, salty cheese or some prawns (Getty/iStock)

This recipe doubles down on its olive oil flavour by fortifying its sauce with a generous amount of torn green olives. You could use just one kind of olive, like mild Castelvetrano, but a variety gives everything greater depth.

Chopped walnuts provide texture and protein to this dish, which is lovely on its own. But it’s also nicely finished with some soft herbs, like oregano, dill or basil; a salty cheese like feta or parmesan; or some prawns, which you could cook alongside the pasta in the last few minutes of the boil.

Olive-walnut pasta

Serves: 4

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Salt and black pepper

450g short pasta, like orecchiette, cavatelli, fusilli or elbows

120ml extra-virgin olive oil

230g chopped walnuts

225g Castelvetrano olives (or a mixture of green olives), pitted and torn

1 small garlic clove, peeled

1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 3 tbsp juice)

Method:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the water’s boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, then drain.

2. While the pasta’s cooking, in a large casserole dish, stir together the olive oil, walnuts and olives. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until fragrant and the walnuts are toasted, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, finely grate in the garlic clove and season with 1½ teaspoons salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir to combine.

3. Add the pasta and ¼ cup pasta water to the walnut mixture. Cook over medium-low, stirring and adding pasta water as needed, until the pasta is well coated. Remove from heat and stir in half the lemon zest and all the lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper and more lemon zest.

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