I dare say, this simple Mediterranean olive oil pasta is textbook Mediterranean diet deliciousness! It skips all the fluff and heavy sauces in favor of extra virgin olive oil and a few ingredients.
This simple olive oil pasta recipe takes inspiration from the popular Naples dish called spaghetti aglio e olio, which translates to spaghetti with garlic and oil.
In a typical spaghetti aglio e olio recipe, pasta is coated in a simple garlic-olive oil sauce, then garnished with parsley and, sometimes, grated Parmesan.
But this Mediterranean olive oil pasta goes just a little bit further, by adding a few favorite ingredients like grape tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, feta and olives.
A couple of tips for this olive oil pasta
First, this dish makes a feature of extra virgin olive oil and relies heavily on its flavor. The oil is briefly heated through, but not cooked. That’s why, you’ll want to use the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can afford.
Remember, oils that are simply labeled “pure” have usually been heat-treated and refined by mechanical means and, consequently, lack character and flavor.
Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil
For this recipe, I always use our Greek Early Harvest extra virgin olive oil. It is organically grown and processed from native Koroneiki olives, which are hand-picked early in the season while still green, and processed within ours to make this prized ‘liquid gold’ they call ‘agoureleo.’
Our Early Harvest oil is an exquisite cold extracted and unfiltered oil with a perfectly balanced complexity— rich green, fruity and pungent with a peppery finish. Our oil features exceptionally high levels of polyphenols and low acidity of less than 0.35%.
Read more about our Early Harvest oil here! It makes a ton of difference in dishes like this Mediterranean olive oil pasta.
Secondly, when making the sauce, do not allow the garlic to brown, it will taint its flavor. If it does brown or burn, you’ll need to toss it and start over.
Of course, if you’re in the mood for something saucy, be sure to check out my homemade spaghetti sauce recipe!
Watch How to Make this Simple Olive Oil Pasta
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Simple Mediterranean Olive Oil Pasta
- Total Time: 19 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
Simple, tasty olive oil pasta loaded with Mediterranean flavors.
Ingredients
- 1 lb thin spaghetti
- 1/2 cup Early Harvest Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or Private Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- Salt
- 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 12 oz grape tomatoes, halved
- 3 scallions (green onions), top trimmed, both whites and greens chopped
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 6 oz marinated artichoke hearts, drained
- 1/4 cup pitted olives, halved
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, more if you like
- 10–15 fresh basil leaves, torn
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Instructions
- Follow package instructions to cook thin spaghetti pasta to al dente (mine took 6 minutes to cook in plenty of boiling water with salt and olive oil).
- When pasta is almost cooked, heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Lower the heat and add garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 seconds, stirring regularly. Stir in the parsley, tomatoes and chopped scallions. Cook over low heat until just warmed through, about 30 seconds or so.
- When the pasta is ready, remove from heat, drain cooking water and return to its cooking pot. Pour the warmed olive oil sauce in and toss to coat thoroughly. Add black pepper and toss again to coat.
- Add the remaining ingredients and toss one more time. Serve immediately in pasta bowls, and if you like, top each with more basil leaves and feta. Enjoy!
Notes
Recommended for this recipe Our Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 9 mins
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Other Recipes to Try
Blackened Chicken and Spaghetti Dinner
This was excellent! I also cooked up some chicken thighs, cut up into bite sized pieces and seasoned them with Aleppo pepper, salt, pepper, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. I didn’t have any cherry tomatoes on hand, so I chopped up some marinated sun dried tomatoes that I hand on hand. My daughter doesn’t care for feta, but I had some Belgioso mozzarella on hand, so I chopped that into small pieces and tossed it with the pasta. So good!
Very good!
This was SOOOO good!! I added some tilapia for protein. It reminded me of Salvatore’s Fish Positano from Johnny Carino’s. I’ve been searching for a copycat recipe for yeeeeaaaars!
How much fiber in recipe
An this be frozen
I’m cooking for one
Hi, Gloris! We don’t really recommend freezing this recipe, as it can become mushy. What I would recommend instead is to halve the recipe. You’ll still have some leftovers, but they will stay good to enjoy for a few days as long as you store them in a tightly closed container in the fridge.
This was soooooooo good!! Made it with shrimp scampi on the side but easily delicious as a stand alone veggie dish! Followed the recipe pretty closely just added the scampi sauce, more seasoning, kale, mushrooms and broccoli. Everybody loved it and so many veggies!😋😋😋
Love that combo, Larissa! Thanks for sharing!
Great dish, I made it as you indicated with grilled chicken breast. I would have like to add the fresh basil but I guess in this Midwest area that is hard to come by. Most of the other items are staples in my cabinet since I started following you. My wife and sister-in-law said it was great as they haven’t had pasta with anything but red or white sauce.
Sounds delicious. Can this be served at room temperature?
Sure, Frankie! We’ve had other readers serve this cold with good results, so I’m guessing it would be yummy at room temp, as well.
It’s the most made recipe in our house and it’s not even close. So customizable. We keep the spirit of Meatless Monday and never add protein. But shrimp or chicken would be great.
The only 2 things I think that could be improved on are…
1. The video and the written instructions don’t match when it comes to pasta transfer, which bowl/skillet etc.. I think given how great your site is going now and the cookbook’s popularity if there was one video you could redo this is the one.
2. I’ve made it a million times.. and 16oz spaghetti is a bit much.. we use 12oz and its perfect and you get more bites of the fixins in ratio to the noodles. Just our preference.
It’s a wonderful dish, thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for the feedback, Greg!
Delicious. Didn’t have fresh basil, but instead added my homemade pesto I had in the freezer. Not a fan of olives so I left them out. Would definitely make again with the pesto.
Delicious. Didn’t have fresh basil, but instead added my homemade pesto I had in the freezer. Not a fan of olives so I left them out. Would definitely make again with the pesto.
Love the idea of using some pesto here!
Made this dish for my wife and I (who’s a real picky eater) and we both loved it. So much so that I fixed for my son and his girlfriend one night for dinner. She’s a vegetarian so it worked out perfectly. And SHE loved it! Did learn that I need to have everything ready to go when cooking and to pay attention to the time as I let the grape tomatoes go a bit too soft when cooking (my iron skillet may have been a dish to hot too). Other than that…a great recipe.
This was delicious! Will make again soon.. and maybe add some scallops or shrimp on top!
I have made this with shrimp many times… so good!
This is an amazing easy dinner! It will definitely be on our dinner rotation. Thank you for such a great dish.
Fail-safe pasta to serve to absolutely anyone. So quick, so easy, so yummy.
New to a serious try of the Mediterranean way of cooking and eating Your you tube channel and this website have become my favorite sites for recipes and techniques. Thank you so much. And your personality is delightful!! Unfailingly good humored and enthusiastic. Best sakes person ever for this very healthy way of life.
Awww! You are very sweet, Shirley! Thank you!