This healthy, light Mediterranean Pasta dish is inspired by Mediterranean flavours of garlic, olives, lemon, basil and tomatoes.  Mmmmm.  I’m not going to lie though.  You have to love olives to love this recipe. And I do.  Salty, tangy, bold.  Yum.

Common in these type of pasta dishes, it’s easy to vary the flavours to your taste by experimenting with the amounts of ingredients you add and the ingredients themselves. For example, when first creating the recipe, I planned to also use capers, but found the salty olives and capers were too overwhelming.  You can, of course cut back on the olives and add capers if you like.  I also found that removing some of the seeds from the tomatoes helped to avoid bitterness (the ones I used had a ton of seeds; yours may not).  And, you can add other vegetables like eggplant or replace the Parmesan with feta cheese.

Exact amounts are not necessary.  Just taste and adjust.  This under 30-minute pasta makes a great weekday meal.  For super hungry eaters, you can round out the meal with shrimp (toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 425F for 5-6 minutes) or grilled chicken pieces – bulking up the pasta dish or using it as a side dish.  The recipe serves 3 (or two big eaters like my husband).

So… go for it…start with the basics and create your own masterpiece!