One-Pot-Pasta with Tuna, Broccoli and Olives

Are you looking for an easy, delicious, healthy and satisfying pasta dish to cook on a Friday night?  One that everyone will love and won’t leave you with a huge mess to clean up?  Great!  You’ve found it!  Give this delicious dish a go…you won’t be disappointed.

This is the post I was supposed to write yesterday before I got side tracked dreaming the afternoon away thinking about (two of my favorite things….) art and Italy.  I have to thank my Aunty Sue for this one…she is the inspiration behind this recipe (and I use that term loosely) as she made it for us in Italy and we all went mad for it.  Now I cook it about once a week…it’ a great dish for kids, mine love it and  I hope yours will love it too.

Penne Pasta with Tuna, Broccoli and Olives

What you need...

What you will need:

Serves 4

400g Penne Pasta – or the Farfelli (bow ties) work nicely too and the kid love it.

1 head of broccoli, cut into bite size florets

Olive Oil

1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1-2 chilli or a pinch of dry flakes (optional)

1 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut in half

1 185g tin of good quality tuna in oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

pepper and salt if desired

Good handful of parmesan cheese

What to do:

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add a generous pinch of salt, then add your pasta and cook as the packet directs – for penne it’s usually about 8 minutes.
2. When you estimate the pasta has two minutes to go, tip in all the broccoli and cook with the pasta for the last two minutes.
3. When the pasta is cooked, tip in to a colander and return your empty hot pot to the stove over medium heat.
4. Add a good few slugs of olive oil to the pot, then add the garlic and chilli (if using).  After a minute, add your tuna and olives and stir for a minute or two to warm through.
5. Add your pasta and broccoli and give it a good stir to evenly mix the tuna through.  Add your lemon juice and some pepper – taste first before adding salt as the olives can be quite salty already.
6. Serve hot from the pot with a generous sprinkle of parmesan, an extra drizzle of your olive oil  and extra chilli for the Dads.

Hot, steaming, tasty, satisfying pasta...YUM!

I hope you like this dish as much as we do!

Happy Eating and have a fantastic weekend!!!

mamacino x

Olives, Italy and The Goddess of Fertility

Funny how thoughts seem to string together to become inspirations, memories and a map of the way our minds work.

Today I have been thinking about olives.  In fact, I’ve had this on going craving for warm olives for a while.  Deciding  what to prepare for dinner got me wondering about dishes with olives.  Dreaming about cooking reminded me of harvesting olives in Italy and tasting the fresh Olio Nuovo … which started me reminiscing about climbing olive trees, which got me thinking about Botero.

When we lived in Pietrasanta, Italy for a few months, Fernando Botero was our neighbour.  He live a few terraces behind us in a beautiful villa which overlooked the olive groves, the Piazza del Duomo and Versilia and the sea beyond.  The fact that it was actually Botero’s summer house and he wasn’t in residence when we were there is not important…in fact it gave us the perfect opportunity to climb the olive trees surrounding his property to take photographs of the beautiful bronze sculpture of The Goddess of Fertility who stood with honesty and grace amongst the flowering plants of his front garden.

Something about the 'fullness of form' Botero uses that I can relate to...

For those who take their art seriously, Botero, creator of monumental sculptures, oil paintings, water colours and drawings, is known for his optimistic and likeable creations…

“Taking the concept of volume to paroxysms of exaggeration, with their fullness of form, his works…are a synthesis of the classical Italian Renaissance tradition and South American and pre-Columbian culture, and are immediately and instictively likeable”

The Warrior

For us, recognising and admiring Botero’s works,  in his garden and in the piazzas of Pietrasanta,  gave us the feeling of connection and belonging we desperately craved as temporary residents of this amazing country.  We fell in love with the serene sculptures and vibrant paintings.  Listening to Miss F, who was three at the time, tell the story of the Heaven and Hell frescoes in the Church of Misericodia was both hilarious and impressive and hearing  both the girls say “oh look, there’s a Botero” in an off handed way was somehow satisfying, like we were relieved more than just gelati and pizza was making an impression.   Some culture was being absorbed along with all the olive oil.

Climbing the terraces to Botero's Villa..

And so from one thought comes another, and another…our time in Italy was so special to us as a family, not a day goes by I don’t remember it for one reason or another.  Now…back to the dinner preparations…stay tuned if you are keen on olives!

mamacino x