Olive-Walnut Pasta

Servings: 4 servings

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Adding chopped walnuts provides texture and a nice dose of protein to this vegan dish, while lemon zest and juice perk everything up. It would also be good with soft herbs like oregano, dill or basil, a salty cheese like feta or Parmesan, or shrimp that's been cooked with the pasta in the last few minutes of boiling.

INGREDIENTS:

Kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound short pasta, like orecchiette, cavatelli, fusilli or elbows
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 ¼ cups Castelvetrano olives (or a mixture of green olives), pitted and torn
1 small garlic clove, peeled
1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 3 tablespoons juice)

DIRECTIONS:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the water’s boiling, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, then drain.
While the pasta’s cooking, in a large Dutch oven, stir together the olive oil, walnuts and olives. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until fragrant and the walnuts are toasted, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, finely grate in the garlic clove and season with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir to combine.
Add the pasta and 1/4 cup pasta water to the walnut mixture. Cook over medium-low, stirring and adding pasta water as needed, until the pasta is well coated. Remove from heat and stir in half the lemon zest and all the lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper and more lemon zest.

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