This simple angel hair pasta recipe is made quite decadent with marinated tomatoes, olives, and Italian Stracchino cheese.
Stracchino cheese, also known as Crescenza or Squaquerone, is a soft Italian cheese that originated in the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions of Italy. It is a fresh cheese that is made from cow’s milk, typically pasteurized, and it has a creamy and slightly tangy flavor with a delicate, buttery taste. It has a spreadable and soft texture, similar to cream cheese or ricotta. The cheese is usually produced in small rectangular or round shapes.
Stracchino is quite probably my favorite young, soft, cow’s milk cheese – it’s pretty much just incredibly thick cream, so smooth and delicate. The name stracchino comes from the word stracch, a word in the Lombard dialect meaning tired. It alludes to the milk produced by the cows tired by the seasonal migration to the valley after the mountain pasture during the summer months.
This simple angel hair pasta recipe is made quite decadent with marinated tomatoes, olives, and the cheese.
Angel Hair Tomato and Stracchino Pasta
- Yield: 4 large servings 1x
Description
This simple angel hair pasta recipe is made quite decadent with marinated tomatoes, olives, and Italian Stracchino cheese.
Ingredients
- 250 g 9 oz cherry tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- pinch sugar
- 1/2 cup black olives
- 1 Tbsp capers or caper berries
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- handful fresh basil leaves
- 250 g 9 oz stracchino
- 500 g about 1lb angel hair pasta (capellini)
Instructions
- Quarter the cherry tomatoes and put them in a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Crush the garlic over the tomatoes, roughly chop the olives and capers and add them along with the dried herbs, salt and pepper and sugar.
- Drizzle the olive oil over the top then stir to combine everything well. Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours, the longer the better, stirring occasionally.
- Tear the basil into pieces and set aside.
- Cook the pasta according to the packet directions, until al dente. Drain, reserving a little pasta cooking water, and return pasta to the pot. Toss the tomato mixture through the pasta, adding a little of the pasta cooking water as needed to make it saucy.
- Toss through the basil, transfer to a serving platter or plates and dollop on the stracchino. Serve immediately.
Notes
If you can’t get stracchino (a.k.a. crescenza) cheese, you can use mascarpone or fresh mozzarella
- Category: Pasta, Primi
- Cuisine: Italian
