Pasta Alle Olive (Olive Pasta)
Yields 6 servings
Pasta Dough
Ingredients
4 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
4 Extra Large Eggs
3 tbsp Black Olive Paste
homemade from large black Greek Olives or tubed
commercial paste from a tube (made from black olives only,
with no additional ingredients)
Pinch Salt
Preparation
Prepare the pasta with the ingredients and quantities listed, placing the olive paste in the well of the flour along with the eggs. Stretch the sheet of pasta to a thickness of about 1/16 of an inch; on the pasta machine take it to the next to the last notch. Cut the past into spaghetti, using the finer cutter on the pasta machine, and let rest on cotton towels until needed.
To Cook the Pasta use coarse grained salt.
Olive Sauce
Ingredients
2 lbs Very Ripe Fresh Tomatoes or drained canned tomatoes, preferably imported Italian.
4 Large Peeled Garlic Cloves
20 sprigs Parsley
6 tbsp Olive Oil
6 tbsp Olive Paste (same as above)
Preparation
Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Meanwhile, coarsely chop the garlic on a board. When the oil is warm, add the chopped garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.
If fresh tomatoes are used, cut them into small pieces. Pass the fresh or canned tomatoes through a food mill, using the disk with the smallest holes, into a crockery of glass bowl.
add the olive past to the saucepan, mix very well, then add the tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every so often with a wooden spoon. Taste for salt and pepper. After 20 minutes the sauce should be quite thick and very smooth.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of cold water to a boil, add coarse salt, then the pasta and cook for 1-5 minutes, depending on the dryness.
Coarsely chop the parsley on a board.
Drain the pasta and place it on a large warmed platter. Pour all the sauce over the pasta, toss very well and serve with the chopped parsley on top.