Olive This Fettuccine

Many of the recent recipes have come straight from a cookbook, magazine, website, or someone else's blog. I'm still trying to explore a lot of the wonderful flavors and this was no exception and probably won't post actual recipes until I start to be more creative on my own. I love green olives and used to be able to eat an entire jar (holy dehydration!) in a sitting but haven't purchased them in years so I was excited to try them out in this pasta dish. The fact that it called for an entire eggplant didn't hurt either! The dish on its own wasn't too nutrient rich so I rounded the meal out with a nice big salad for some fill and to keep the pasta portion size reasonable.


The salad was quite tasty with a homemade dressing. It had spinach, tomato, carrot, some sauteed (and cooled) shitake mushrooms and a little bit of red onion, and a little bit of goat cheese. The dressing was olive oil, lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper, and a dash of rosemary to boost the lemony flavor. I made it on the fly and will definitely keep the recipe around!


I loved the pasta (c'mon, eggplant and olive? Soooo good) but I think I'll use a different shape of pasta next time. I typically prefer shorter cuts like penne and fusili and think that the sauce would be better diffused throughout especially when using the starchier whole-wheat variety. The sauce had a wonderful kick to it and we needed to be able to taste MORE of it.


As of right now I haven't had any dessert like treats but the desire for something sweet after the very savory sauce is in high gear. What'll it be? A couple chocolate chips? A Greek yogurt? Chocolate of course!