Try our fresh and simple vegetarian spaghetti recipe with creamy mozzarella, smashed olives and ajvar. Ajvar, a sauce traditionally from the Balkans and made up primarily of red peppers, is super quick and easy to whip up and great to use in summer pasta dishes. You can easily exchange the spaghetti for linguine and mozzarella for burrata
Ingreadient
- 150g spaghetti
- 3 from a jar whole roasted red peppers
- 1/2 clove garlic
- 2 sprigs thyme, stripped of leaves
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts, plus extra to serve
- a handful flat-leaf parsley
- 14 kalamata olives
- 1 ball mozzarella or burrata
Direction
- Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
- For the ajvar, put the roasted peppers, garlic, thyme and 2 tbsp olive oil in a food processor and whizz until puréed. Add the pine nuts and parsley and pulse a few times until chunky.
- Squash the olives with the flat of a large knife to pop out the stones, then cut the flesh into quarters.
- Drain the pasta, tear in the mozzarella and toss with the pepper ajvar. Divide between two plates then scatter over the olives and more pine nuts, if you like.
