Cafe Liz

Confetti pasta with nuts, raisins and parsley

This oil-based pasta sauce is sweet and salty from the raisins and olive tapenade, and contains everything from onions and garlic to nuts and a big handful of parsley. I think I once had something similar at a fancy restaurant. Plus, it’s an easy dish to make for potluck dinners.

For one bag of pasta (about 6-8 servings):

500 g bag of pasta (spirals are good)
2 purple onions, chopped
6-8 garlic cloves, crushed
6 T tomato paste
2 T black olive tapenade
1/4-1/2 c olive oil
3/4 c chopped parsley
1/2 c pine nuts
1/2 c slivered almonds
1 c white raisins, chopped
salt
pepper

Prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the package.

Meanwhile, start frying the chopped onions in the olive oil (you can do this in the pot in which you cooked the pasta, in order to cut down on dishes). Once they become translucent, add the garlic as well as the raisins, and let fry another minute. Mix in the tomato paste and the olive tapenade (you could also just add extra salt in place of the olives, and add some chopped olives at the end instead), and turn off the flame.

In a small frying pan, toast the pine nuts and the almonds over a medium flame, watching intently and stirring frequently so that they don’t burn — the pine nuts should “sweat,” while both nuts will turn a light brown. Don’t let them blacken — burnt nuts are no fun.

Mix the pasta into the onion-tomato mix, and add the parsley and the toasted nuts.

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