30 Minute Farfalle with Marinated Feta, Arugula and Toasted Pine Nuts.

You are absolutely one of my favorite people.

So I made you this!

Talk about an easy, super flavorful dish that you needed in your life five minutes ago.

Run out and get the ingredients!

I’ll wait.

This is my faux recreation of an amazzzzing pasta dish at a restaurant here in Pittsburgh, Sausalido. It’s actually called their “famous farfalle” and while I’m dying to know exactly what goes into it, I can’t really be all “oh hi can you please give me your famous recipe so I can exploit it on the internet to all of my invisible friends?”

Um no. I cannot.

Or can I?

So I had to go by taste! And here’s the thing: it’s ridiculously simple. Deliciously simple. Like one of those dishes that is so easy and has so few ingredients but tastes SO wonderful.

It sort of reminded me of this spinach goat cheese pasta.

I think it’s the feta. Feta has a tendency to take everything right on over the edge of tastiness.

Also, I don’t even like the word tastiness. But i think we can all agree that I super overdo the word DELICIOUS.

Another thing I never liked (is that a super negative post? what what?) – FARFALLE! Like, never. If you’re a long time reader than you know that I grew up with a heavy dislike for pasta, but mostly pasta with red sauce. Farfalle was my least favorite version, which is insane since it’s quite possibly the most adorable cut.

Being from the extremely un-italian family that I am, I also never understood why people preferred certain pasta shapes or said certain pastas were their favorite – because don’t they all taste the same?! They did to me. Alas, I still felt that weird way about farfalle.

Until this.

I mean, we are talking as recently as last summer! That’s when I learned to love farfalle and when I started craving this dish. We also just had it again last weekend at my friend Natalie’s bridal shower and it was alllll I could think about.

Now. I know that this version has to be missing something, but it’s still darn good. It’s the perfect Monday night meal, the perfect weeknight meal. Toasty pine nuts, tangy feta that melts as much as feta can against the hot pasta, slightly wilted (but not mushy) arugula and garlicky olive oil. It can easily be made in 30 minutes or less. In fact, the longest amount of time comes from waiting for the pasta water to boil.

Just throw on a youtube video of uptown funk a few times and you’re good to go. It never gets old. 

Farfalle with Marinated Feta, Arugula and Toasted Pine Nuts

Yield: 2 (or 4, as a side dish)

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

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5 from 10 votes

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Ingredients

• 6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 5  tablespoons olive oil
• 2  teaspoons red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 pound whole wheat farfalle
• 8 ounces baby arugula
• 1/3 cup pine nuts

Instructions 

• In a bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, oregano and crushed red pepper. Stir in 1 minced garlic clove. Crumbled in about 4 ounces of the feta and place the bowl in the fridge. You can also do this ahead of time (like the night before, morning of, etc)! In a another bowl, whisk together the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and the other garlic clove.
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the farfalle according to the directions on the box. Place the baby arugula in a large bowl.
• While the pasta is cooking, place the pine nuts in a skillet and heat over low heat. Stir, toss and shake the pan constantly so the pine nuts don’t burn, cooking until golden, toasty and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
• Once the pasta is finished cooking, drain it and place it directly over the baby arugula. Drizzle the garlic olive oil over the pasta and cover the bowl with a piece of foil. Let sit for 5 minutes. This should wilt the arugula and you can always give it a good stir to help the process along.
• Toss the pasta with the marinated feta (I add the entire contents to the pasta) and pine nuts. Add the remaining 2 ounces of feta on top. Toss well and serve!
• Note: I find that this pasta has tons of flavor (the salty feta, the salted pasta water, the pine nuts) and doesn’t need additional salt and pepper, but feel free to add it if needed!

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

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