Farfalle

What is farfalle? That's what I was asking myself this weekend at the grocery store. I'd selected a recipe on America's Test Kitchen called Farfalle with Tomatoes, Olives and Feta to make, based on an all-pasta episode of the television show. Farfalle was the pasta called for by the recipe. It turns out that farfalle is bow-tie shaped pasta. So I got my farfalle, some tomatoes, kalamata olives, extra-virgin olive oil ('ee-voh' on all the cooking competition shows I've watched recently), mint leaves and feta cheese.

The tomatoes are diced, the olives chopped, the mint leaves chopped and mixed in with the olive oil. The pasta is cooked al dente and drained. Stir in the ingredients, then add the feta last and stir some more. Sound like a traditional American spaghetti and meatballs dish? No, of course not. But almost all the dishes on the ATK pasta show were like this one. Cook pasta, prepare a bowl of ingredients, mix 'em together. I was intrigued by this approach, which I'd seen a few other places in the past, so I determined to try it myself. This particular dish was one of the simplest.

How did it work? It worked great. It's easy to prepare, and very tasty. Given the high starch content, I don't imagine I'll be making it all that often, but for a change of palate, it's pretty neat.