(This may appear similar to the other penne dish, but they are two very different animals, and this one takes about a third as long to make.)
A dish like this requires something a little vivacious, perhaps, in the music department. I am thinking something old-school and swinging, like Django Reinhardt or early Duke Ellington. Maybe Fats Waller if you've got a crowd. Open a bottle of Ca del Solo Malvasia Bianca for your guests. Pit and halve the Kalamata olives. This is the only real time-consuming part. Cook the penne to the desired consistency. An Italian friend of mine, whom I believe in matters of food and coffee, recently pointed out that massive amounts of salt in the pasta water is a good thing. Like very nearly a handful. Try it sometime! Anyway, drain the penne, drain the water from the kettle, and return the penne to the kettle. Add a short pour of olive oil to the penne, just enough to lubricate and flavor. Press in one or two cloves of garlic, according to your taste. Add olives and sundried tomatoes. Crumble the feta into the kettle and stir everything in. Return the kettle to medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the feta begins to loosen up a bit and the garlic starts to get friendly, usually about three minutes or so. Salt and pepper to taste. Lots of ground pepper works really well. Makes enough to serve four with some left over for lunch the next day. This dish takes about half a container of everything to make, so that would make it just childishly simple to double the recipe when lots of people are coming over, I'm thinking. And it works extremely well when lots of people are coming over. Preparing the olives is the most time-consuming portion of the work; other than that, there's almost no prep time and it's easy to make a boatload. It also works well to augment this dish with sausages on the side, in which case it would serve about six. It takes a fairly agressive wine to stand up to the feta and garlic, especially depending on how much garlic you're using. I'd tend to say the more precious the wine, the less garlic in the mix. I would enthusiastically suggest Zinfandel or something southern Rhone-ish, like a Gigondas or Rasteau. My favorite wine with this would be something from Domaine L'Aigueliere in the Languedoc. That can be easy or hard to find, depending on where you live, but a bottle of Les Pailleres Gigondas is usually easy to find, and would rock with this and sausages. Bon appetit! |