Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mediterranean Pasta

It's not easy to come up with appealing names when you create a dish. Recipe developers must have a hard time with that. This is a version of a dish that I have been making a lot recently. It's simple but extremely flavorful! I am calling this Mediterranean Pasta - Version 1...(it's actually version 2, I just never posted the first version) if you can come up with a better name for this, please let me know! Another version of this dish will be posted soon!


Mediterranean Pasta

Ingredients:

1 pound linguine
1 package diced pancetta
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
approx 1/2 cup kalamata olives, chopped
salt, pepper, sugar
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup chicken broth
extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
romano cheese

Directions:

1.  Sweat onions in a combination of butter and oil over medium-low heat.  Season with salt and pepper and a sprinkling of sugar.  Let cook until caramelized. About 20 minutes. 

2.  Push onions to the side, raise the heat to medium and brown pancetta and garlic.  Once the pancetta takes on some color add the olives, peppers, let cook for a minute.  Add chicken broth and using a wooded spoon, remove the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  There will be so much wonderful flavor from the pancetta. Reduce heat to low.

3.  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Season generously with salt.  Cook linguine.  Once linguine is just short of al dente, fish out pasta with tongs and add to pan with caramelized onion mixture.  I like to do it like this when I'm making a light sauce because some pasta water will get into the pan with the linquine and create a nice sauce. 

4.  Toss well.  Sprinkle with romano cheese and serve.



Click here for a printable version of Mediterranean Pasta. 


7 comments:

Allie and Pattie said...

I think the name fits very well! Lovely dish!
xoxo Pattie

La Bella Cooks said...

Mediterranean pasta works perfectly! This looks fabulous.

Unknown said...

It's dishes like this that make me wonder how any takeaway can be worth it. This is beautiful, healthy and fast. Quicker than waiting for a take away!

the buenaventurians said...

I like the encouragement to use chicken broth (those little one cup portions of concentrated chicken broth at Trader Joe's are useful for this). I suggest: Low-Fat Red Pepper-Pancetta Linguine. Canned clams and clam broth could be a good variation.

Patti T. said...

Hmmmm, that dish does look familiar, it is really pretty. Recipe sounds great, I am so uncreative I could never come up with names for dishes. When people ask me, I always say "It is just something I threw together."

Unknown said...

Your dish looks good and the name is just fine! I'm horrible at coming up with names. Once I made a chicken dish and just called it "chicken something"...soooo, in my book, you're doing good! LOL

Mary Bergfeld said...

This is a beautiful pasta and the name is just fine. I am a recent reader of your blog and I must tell you how much I have enjoyed your recipes. They keep me coming back :-). I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary