The Loose Connections Recommender #23

On Kitchen Stories & Blowing Kisses

I’m still enjoying embracing everything Italian and trying to teach myself to think in Italian. Last night when trying to think what to cook for dinner, and inspired by the nearly expired packet of beautiful organic green olives I had found when cleaning out my kitchen cupboards and was determined not to waste, I suddenly remembered a recipe I hadn’t prepared since my grown daughter was a child - Sophia Loren’s Green Olive, Tomato & Breadcrumb Spaghetti. I couldn’t think where the actual recipe she had painstakingly copied out in green marker from her grandpa’s recipe book as a little girl might be, so I just launched into cooking from memory.

Sophia Loren’s Green Olive, Pomodoro Crudo & Breadcrumb Sauce

One clove of garlic per person, finely chopped

Slice and dice a large handful of green olives per person

Slice and dice a large handful of tomatoes per person - I used cherry tomatoes

Chop a large handful of Italian parsley per person

Zest an entire lemon

Butter

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Sea salt

Pepper

Put your pasta choice on to cook. The original Sophia recipe used spaghetti I seem to recall but I used penne cos that’s what I had.

Now, lightly fry your garlic and tomatoes in butter and olive oil, with salt - salt helps garlic not to burn.

When they are starting to soften, throw in your green olives, followed by breadcrumbs and a big knob of butter. Toss until breadcrumbs are starting to brown and all is blended. If it seems too dry, add a big glug of olive oil.

Add in your lemon zest, parsley, salt and pepper. Lemon zest is my secret ingredient that brings almost every dish alive. I use it on salad, avocado toast, porridge, roast veg, all kinds of things. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that zing.

Toss your buttered or well oiled pasta into to the mix - you want every piece of pasta coated in the mixture so add slowly to make sure your proportions work.

Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon or more lemon zest if you have it and lots of parmesan cheese (if you are vegan just add a little more lemon zest and oil).

It’s such a hearty flavoursome pasta dish. I heartily recommend you give it a try!

After we ate it, I decided to see if I could find the actual recipe and of course, there it was on the internet, and it’s actually quite a bit different to what I made. For starters it has anchovies - I’ve been vegetarian basically my entire life so would not have used them in it when I made it way back then - but it also has capers and red onion which would definitely add some flavour bursts. But no breadcrumbs or lemon zest. I think I like my evolution version better.

I did a similar thing years ago with recording a bunch of country songs I remembered really well but hadn’t really sat down and listened to properly since I was a teenager and only listening back two the originals after recording them - I was surprised to find my recall was pretty good and I’d only reimagined the words of a few parts!

But I digress, the thing I love about Italian recipes is they are so flexible - they basically make use of whatever you have. Some of you long time readers may recall my popular pesto recipe from the Loose Connections Recommender # 4, another handy recipe for your pasta arsenal. Here its is:

Another thing I’ve been loving this week is this exquisite song by the wonderful Canadian artist Jennifer Castle, who I discovered a few years ago via a recommendation from another absolutely incredible Canadian artist Daniel Romano.

You know how some songs just kinda hit you in the right spot? This one felt like that. After I listened, I kept hearing it playing quietly in the background of my mind all week and then when I was watching Season 3 of The Bear with my son, the song appeared, used almost at full length to lovely effect. Quite honestly I sometimes find whole songs used on TV shows to be indulgent, lazy filmmaking and more like a music video montage that leaves the song to do the emotional lifting … but I liked this very much.

The music used on The Bear is so distinctive and eclectic I was not surprised to discover that the show’s creators also serve as music supervisors, music is obviously highly important to the vision. If anyone is friends with Christopher Storer, please send him my records!

As a lover of recipe book browsing, always on the look out for a new exotic vegetarian recipe, I also enjoyed this Guardian article about The Bear’s Chef Carmy’s impressive collection, that includes some out-of-print Australian classics.

My Loose Connections Recommendation #23 is to get into the kitchen and rattle them pots and pans with some great music blasting - and show me your favourite exotic vegetarian pasta recipes! Or your favourite new songs.

Ciao x