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caramelized fig; black pepper feta; coriander; biltong; pasta

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Quick pasta dishes are the go-to for someone who is busy but still likes to cook. In the time that the pasta cooks, you prepare the other ingredients. It is quick and simple, and takes less than 30 minutes in total. That includes getting the pans and pots from the cupboard!

Pasta cooks in roughly 10-15 minutes if you factor in the time the water needs to come to a boil.

In that time, you can prepare all of the other ingredients. And in the quick lunch recipe, I want to share with you just that. I had some fig preserves, some biltong (a local South African dried meat), and some black pepper feta, which I all caramelized while the pasta was cooking.

This recipe was partly inspired by a similar pizza that I make. If this feels like something that you would like to make, please follow along with me as I show you step-for-step how I make this quick, simple, and delicious pasta recipe!

Without further ado...

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Ingredients List/Recipe

The fewer the ingredients the better. Simplicity in pasta dishes always trumps any recipe that calls for copious amounts of ingredients. For the following recipe, which yields one portion, I used:

• 1 small pickling onion,
• 2 small figs (preserved),
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds,
• 50g of dried pasta,
• a couple of thyme sprigs,
• a handful of biltong,
• too much olive oil, and
• 1 smallish cube of black pepper feta cheese.

Process/Method

As with all of my recipes, this one starts the same. Get all of your ingredients and start cutting it. I cut the onion into smallish cubes, and I did the same with the blitong. The figs, being the star of this dish, I kept bigger than the other ingredients.

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Whilst I cut these ingredients, I let the water come to a boil. I added just enough water to cover the pasta (see photograph below). This is not necessarily the best practice, but what this will yield is incredibly starchy water, which is perfect for making sauces. The thing with boiling pasta in so little water is that your salt ratio needs to be spot on, because if you add too much salt at this stage, your pasta dish will be overly salty (trust me, I have been there).

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While the pasta is boiling, I add the onions to a small frying pan with some oil in it. The goal is to get the onions a little charred without burning them. Colour equals flavour, but don't burn them completely!

As the onions begin to cook, I get all of the other things ready, as things are about to get quick!

As soon as the onions are almost done, I add the biltong. Because it is dried, it does not have to be cooked. You can either add the coriander now or later, but I have found that coriander seeds can become bitter when exposed to too much heat. But the biltong contains coriander seeds, so it is probably not that big of a deal.

After the biltong, I added the figs, along with its sugary preserve, and the coriander seeds. This will caramelize and become really tasty! As soon as this happens, or slightly before, turn the heat off. There will be some carry-over heat, which will further caramelize the sugars.

I then finish with the black pepper feta cheese and thyme leaves.

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There will not be too much moisture in the dish. But that is why the pasta water is so important. At this stage, I add the copious amounts of olive oil, and I begin to add the pasta. As you add the pasta, add the starchy water as well. With the starchy and salty pasta water mixing wit the olive oil, a thick and luscious sauce will begin to develop. The caramelized sugars from the fig is not too much, so the dish will not be sweet, it will only add some complexity and depth to the dish.

Plate Up!

And there you have it. It is as simple, quick, and easy as that. A bit of chopping, throw everything into a hot pan while the pasta is cooking, and then mix it together before plating. (If you want to be fancy and take photographs like I did, add some fresh thyme leaves on top of feta cheese!)

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The simplicity behind pasta dishes gives it its appeal. But that is also why it is so hard to make them good. Even the simplest of pasta dishes will humble the egoistic cook.

I have been to quote-unquote fancy pasta restaurants in this country of ours (South Africa) where they gave me scrambled eggs. The chef did not have a good day!

The most simple of them all, aglio e olio, is basically garlic and olive oil. If you can master this dish, you have mastered all of the pasta dishes. As this dish alone can be one of the most delicious of pasta dishes. But you need to respect the recipe and method of cooking it.

This dish I have presented for you today tries to incorporate all of these simplistic ideals.

The star is caramelized fig.

The feta cheese with black pepper is a substitute for the usual pecorino or parmesan.

The dried meat (biltong) is a substitute for bacon or any of the other cuts.

And together, there is a beautiful union of different flavours that go so well. The coriander and thyme mixed with the fig and feta cheese with black pepper complement each other so well. The biltong brings its own unique umami to the dish. The olive oil and rich, delicious sauce created with the salty and starchy pasta water coat your mouth.

In the end, this is a very simple, quick, delicious, but also very light dish. There are no ingredients that will make you feel too full.

It serves as a perfect quick lunch.

In any case, I hope you make this for yourself, and please let me know how it went.

For now, happy cooking, and keep well.

All of the writings and musings are my own. The recipe is inspired by one of my other recipes (hyperlinked above). The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.