How about a pasta dish that’s sauce comes from nothing more than the liquid of a jar of pitted Kalamata olives and a jar of marinated artichoke hearts? That and 2 tablespoons of olive oil was all I used to make the sauce for this scrumptious bowtie pasta dish. Once my grape and mini heirloom tomatoes started to burst, that also added to the wonderful pasta sauce for our dinner. I did add 4 minced cloves of garlic for flavor, as well as kosher salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

I started by heating the olive oil in a large skillet and adding two 16 ounce packages of tomatoes. I used one package of grape tomatoes and one package of mini heirloom. You can use all grape tomatoes or all mini heirloom, that’s up to you. I like to add the heirloom tomatoes because of the added color they provide to our meals. Once the tomatoes had started to burst a bit, I added the garlic. I did break some of the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon.

As soon as the garlic was added to the skillet, I added the jars of pitted olives and artichoke hearts, as well as the juice of three lemons. If your lemons are extra juicy, you may decide to stop with two.

I let the sauce simmer for about a half an hour and once the pasta was cooked, I added it directly to the skillet with the vegetables.

Serve with ground parmesan and extra red pepper flakes.

If you are interested in adding a protein to this dish, I did that for Dennis. He wanted sweet Italian chicken sausage added so I did that for him. Below is a picture of how the dish looked with the sausages.

Ingredients

1 16 ounce package of bowtie pasta

2 16-ounce packages of small tomatoes, such as grape or mini heirloom

1 12-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts

1 12-ounce jar pitted Kalamata olives

4 cloves minced garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

grated parmesan for serving

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add tomatoes and let cook over medium high heat until they start to burst a little, approximately 10 minutes.
2. Add minced garlic, stir into tomatoes. Immediately add olives and artichokes and the lemon juice. Let simmer for 30 minutes, as sauce thickens a bit.
3. Cook bow-tie pasta while sauce is simmering and add drained noodles directly to skillet. (I use a spider to transfer the pasta to the skillet in lieu of draining it in a colander in the sink.)
4. Top with grated parmesan and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris