Brown Butter Pomdoro with Olive Gremolata

A lovely, easy peasy pasta

A quick recipe for you today! I recently collaborated with Bed Threads to create a delightful little pasta to celebrate their latest range of table linen, which features some very cute embroidered produce like tomatoes, olives, strawberries and lemons. The brief was tomatoes and olives, so that’s how this dish came about. I added some green olives to an otherwise pretty standard gremolata - my oh my! I love doing it this way - the olives add this gorgeous salty, briny smack and mixed with the garlic, lemon and herbaceous notes from the parsley it delivers a 10/10 punch for a topping.

The base sauce was inspired by burro e oro (I shared a recipe for ravioli and this sauce here), which is quite typical in Bologna and really all it takes is trying that combination of butter and tomato once to know how heavenly it is. The additional step of browning the butter adds this nutty undertone to the pomodoro, and the butter element in general makes it taste somewhat creamy. Honestly, this has become one of my favourites pastas for the year so far.

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The Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

Olive gremolata

• Small bunch of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

• 10-12 large green olives, roughly chopped

• ½ shallot, finely diced

• 1 large garlic clove, minced or grated

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

• Several tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

• Salt and pepper

Brown butter pomodoro

• 100g unsalted butter

• 1x 400g can of good quality, whole peeled tomatoes

• Salt

• 320g tagliatelle

Method

1. Combine the parsley, olives, lemon zest and garlic and drizzle in the olive oil – using enough to create a chunky but somewhat loose consistency.

2. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

3. In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat until browned – it will melt, foam, and splutter – once it becomes golden brown and smells lovely and nutty, it’s ready.

4. Tip in the canned tomatoes and mix well – season with salt and reduce the heat. Allow the sauce to simmer while you bring a pot of water to a rapid boil.

5. Salt the water generously before cooking the pasta until al dente.

6. Transfer the pasta directly to the sauce and toss to marry.

7. Serve family style on a platter and adorn with the olive gremolata.

You can also view my recipe on the Bed Threads journal here.