April 22, 2015

Pasta with Mushrooms Olives Feta and Pesto

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This pasta with mushrooms, olives, feta and pesto is a quick and easy pasta recipe that works well either hot or cold.  It’s an earthy, savory pasta dish featuring mushrooms sautéed to a golden brown.  

Pasta with Mushrooms Olives Feta and Pesto | Green Valley Kitchen

The pasta and mushrooms are tossed with an easy, lemony pesto sauce.  Then olives, salty feta and tossed pine nuts are added to the pasta and mushrooms to finish the dish.

The pesto is a simple combination of italian parsley, lemon juice, garlic, parmesan cheese and a little olive oil.  Just whirl it up in your food processor and it’s ready.  I used a small/mini food processor to make the pesto.

Pasta with Mushrooms Olives Feta and Pesto | Green Valley Kitchen

I love the earthy, hearty texture of mushrooms.  I used baby button mushrooms but you could substitute any type of mushroom you want in this dish.  The important step is to sauté them so that they become a lovely, caramelized, brown color.

I’m a big garlic fan and have included a fair amount of garlic in this dish.  The mushrooms are sautéed with garlic and there’s garlic in the pesto as well.

Pasta with Mushrooms Olives Feta and Pesto | Green Valley Kitchen

A couple of notes:

You want to make sure that you sauté your mushrooms so that they caramelize and turn brown.  The secret to this is to add your sliced mushrooms to your sauté pan and cook over medium high heat without stirring for 3 minutes.  As they cook, they will release their juices, which will evaporate as it cooks.  This way your mushrooms will turn a lovely brown – rather than stay a dull color.

The pesto is a chunky type of pesto – not an oily type of pesto.  When adding the pesto, add it to the pasta first, once you’ve drained the pasta.  Adding it to the hot pasta will help it melt and cover all the pasta equally.  After you’ve added the pesto to the pasta, add all your other ingredients.

I used italian parsley for the pesto.  Italian parsley has flat leaves – rather than curly leaves.  If you can’t find italian parsley regular parsley will work just as well.

This pasta dish works well as leftovers, so make a little extra so you can pack it up for lunch the next day.

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Pasta with Mushrooms Olives Feta and Pesto

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

A savory, earthy pasta dish featuring sauteed mushrooms, olives, feta and a fresh easy pesto sauce.

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 2 to 4 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Pasta:

  • 8 oz of pasta – I used rotini
  • 8 oz of mushrooms – I used white button mushrooms
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 cloves of peeled garlic – minced or put through a garlic press.
  • 10 to 12 kalamata olives
  • 2 oz of feta cheese – diced into cubes
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts – toasted

Pesto:

  • 1 cup italian parsley
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan
  • 1 lemon – juiced – about 2 to 3 tbs
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 8 twists of pepper

Instructions

  1. Slice mushrooms into thin slices.
  2. Roughly chop olives and set aside.
  3. Dice feta and set aside.
  4. Add parsley, parmesan, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic cloves and black pepper to a food processor and blend until pesto is pureed. I used a small/mini food processor.
  5. Cook pasta as per box instructions.
  6. In a saute pan, saute mushrooms in one tbs olive oil. Let the mushrooms cook, without stirring, over medium high heat for 3 minutes. Then add minced garlic and stir. Continue cooking mushrooms until they are a golden brown.
  7. Add pesto to pasta and toss to combine. Add sauteed mushrooms, olives, feta and pine nuts. Toss to combine and serve.

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32 comments on “Pasta with Mushrooms Olives Feta and Pesto”

  3. Robyn @ Simply Fresh Dinners

    Hi Geraldine,

    I’m just loving these beautiful pasta dish! I’m all about quick and easy dinners. With your permission, I’d love to include it in a round-up I’m doing this week. Credits and links all back to you, of course 🙂
    Your blog is so beautiful. Each time I visit I find something more that I love!

    Reply ↓
  5. La Torontoise

    Geraldine, I’ve been reading your blog for a while, but work is very hectic and only now could write. I did this pasta recipe tonight and it became an instant hit. Thank you very much!

    Have a great weekend!

    Reply ↓
    1. Geraldine Post author

      Thanks so much, La Torontoise! So glad you enjoyed the recipe and thanks for taking the time to let me know – I really appreciate it. Hope you have a wonderful weekend too!

      Reply ↓
  6. Calie

    What a wonderful pasta! My boyfriend loves mushroom and when I cook this dish for him, he can’t stop saying : ” It’s so good, it’s so delicious, babe”. Thank you for you recipe .

    Reply ↓
    1. Geraldine Post author

      Hi Lily – pasta, feta and mushrooms are a really great earthy, salty combination – plus the olives of course! Hope you try it!

      Reply ↓
    1. Geraldine Post author

      Hi Denise – parsley pesto is great – it’s a milder pesto than basil – but the lemon and garlic give it a great kick – hope you try it. And no more dull mushrooms!

      Reply ↓
  12. Traci | Vanilla And Bean

    The flavors, textures and nourishment of your recipe, Geraldine, is perfection! Pasta is pure comfort food and paired with a garlicky pesto, it’s something I crave! I bet this is excellent cold, as leftovers, too! Thank you for your tip regarding the mushrooms…. I tend to feel the urge to stir, stir, stir…. Looking forward to this, Geraldine! Thank you!

    Reply ↓
  13. Izzy

    This is one pasta I can get on board with! I am loving those big chunks of feta in there! Pesto is such a great pasta topper and I love that you can pretty much make it out of any green herb or vegetable you can find! This looks perfect!

    Reply ↓
    1. Geraldine Post author

      You know me, Julia – I’m all about easy meals! I’m a huge pesto fan – you can change it up so easily and it adds so much flavor to a dish. Thanks!

      Reply ↓

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