They combine the olives with the other vegetables to produce a range of tapenades that capture the sunshine-ripened flavors of Nice in a jar. These flavors are all packed into this recipe: black olive tapenade, grilled red peppers, ribbons of zucchini, and tomatoes. You might begrudge the use of pasta in a Franco-centric cookbook, but this is where France and Italy meet, and, despite their intrinsically stubborn nature, the French love a bit of pasta.
Ingredients
- 18 oz (500 g) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Pinch of salt
- 2 zucchini
- 8 large sheets of fresh pasta (6 by 9 inches)
- 8 tsp black olive tapenade
- 7 oz (200 g) roasted red peppers (from a jar), drained and roughly chopped
- 7 oz (200 g) cooked artichokes, roughly chopped
- ⅔ cup crème fraîche
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small handful of flat-leaf parsley
- ½ Finely grated lemon zest and juice
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small saucepan, combine the cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and salt. Cover and cook over medium heat for 8 minutes, or until the tomatoes have burst and softened. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, trim the zucchini and, using a peeler, make long ribbons. Stop when you get to the spongy seed core and discard.
- With the short side of the pasta facing you, spread the tapenade thinly over them. Lay a few of the zucchini ribbons down the length of the sheets to just cover each sheet in a thin layer. Mix together the red peppers and artichokes and spoon 3 tbsp of the mixture down the center of each of the sheets, then roll the pasta up tightly from the long side, trapping the filling in the center. Place in a baking dish. Repeat with the other sheets of pasta.
- Pour the tomato sauce over the rolled pasta. Season the crème fraîche with pepper, stir until smooth, and dollop over the top. Cook for about 30 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
- Chop the parsley finely and mix with the lemon zest. Scatter over the cooked pasta and squeeze lemon juice over it all just before serving.
