This dish is one of my favourites when i don't have a lot of time for prep... so quick and fresh! I'm sure someone out there has made this before, but in my head i like to think i made it up. Serves 4, takes 15 minutes.
1.5 cups of dried pasta (any kind will work, but i usually use hand-made short pasta)
2 tomatoes
1 bunch of spinach
1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic
3 Tbsp olive oil
15 pitted kalmata olives
12 leaves of fresh basil
1/3 cup feta or fresh ricotta cheese (I prefer feta, but they're both good. If you use ricotta be sure to add a couple dashes of salt)
Pepper
In a large saucepan boil your pasta til it's el dante. Meanwhile dice your tomatoes, wash and trim the roots off your spinach, chop your kalmata olives and shave your basil. You may also have time to zest your lemon and then cut it in half in preparation for squeezing.
To shave basil: take all your leaves and stack them on top of one another flat, with the largest ones sandwiching the rest together, then, roll them tightly from one end to the other like you'd roll a sleeping bag. With a sharp knife start at one end of the roll and slice it off as thin as you can. This makes long threads of basil.
Once the pasta is done, drained and rinsed put a little bit of oil on it so it doesn't stick together. You can leave it in the colander for now.
In the pan that used to hold the pasta, put the rest of the olive oil on medium heat. Crush your garlic into it and add the olives, lemon zest and pepper. This flavours the oil which in turn will coat the dish. Let that do it's thing for about 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and squeeze the lemon juice into the pot and let it do it's thing for another 1 minute. Lastly, add the pasta, spinach, basil and feta. Stir and heat for another 2 minutes. You'll know it's done when your spinach is wilted but still bright green.
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