Summer is already beginning to make itself felt in Sicily.
During the hottest months, spending a long time in front of the stove becomes more demanding. This is one of the reasons pasta salad has become such a familiar and practical summer dish: it can be prepared during the cooler hours of the day, kept in the refrigerator and enjoyed later, when nobody feels like cooking again.
It is also a dish made to travel.
Here at the farm, when the day takes us away from the house or we are working out in the countryside, we sometimes prepare a pasta salad in advance and bring it with us. It is easy to carry, generous enough to become a complete meal and particularly welcome after several hours outdoors.
A Contemporary Way of Eating
Pasta salad does not belong to Sicily’s oldest repertoire of rural recipes. It is more closely connected to contemporary domestic life: to refrigeration, meals prepared ahead of time and food that can be carried from one place to another.
But a recipe does not need to be ancient to express the character of a place.
What matters to us is that it begins with what is fresh, seasonal and available. This is very much part of the way we cook at the farm: not following tradition as a fixed formula, but continuing to use the ingredients the land offers at a particular moment.
At this time of year, the garden gives us eggplants, tomatoes and basil. We combined them with mozzarella, short pasta and black olives, treating each ingredient separately before bringing everything together.
The eggplant was grilled. The tomatoes were cooked for only a few minutes, so that they softened without becoming a sauce. The mozzarella was added fresh, once the pasta had cooled.
The final touch was a crisp black olive crumble: a familiar Mediterranean ingredient transformed into something dry, savoury and unexpectedly crunchy.
The result is a fresh summer pasta that can be served slightly warm or at room temperature, prepared in advance and shared wherever the day happens to take us.
A Recipe from Our Free Online Cooking Class
We prepared this recipe together during our latest live online cooking class from the farm in Sicily.
It was a pleasure to see familiar faces again, to welcome new ones and to cook the same ingredients together from kitchens in different parts of the world.
Our community online cooking classes are completely free. To participate, you only need to subscribe to our newsletter. Before each class, we send the ingredient list and the link needed to join us live.
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Ingredients
For 4 people
- 320 g / 11 oz short pasta
- 300 g / 10½ oz ripe tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
- 250 g / 9 oz mozzarella
- 1 medium eggplant, approximately 350 g / 12 oz
- 80 g / 3 oz pitted black olives
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus a little more for finishing
- 10–12 fresh basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt, to taste
Choose a short pasta shape that can hold the vegetables and olive crumble well. Orecchiette, casarecce, fusilli, mezze maniche or another compact shape will all work.
For the olive crumble, use black olives packed in oil, vacuum-packed or salt-cured. Avoid olives preserved in brine, as they contain too much moisture for this preparation.
Method
1. Prepare the Crispy Black Olives
Preheat the oven to 225°C / 440°F.
Remove the stones from the black olives, if they are not already pitted, and drain them carefully. IMPORTANT: black olives must be cured in the proper, no brain (usually used for the bad quality ones) but only salt or preserved in olive oil or just dry.
Place the olives in a blender and pulse until they are finely chopped. They should not become a completely smooth paste.
Spread the chopped olives in a thin layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until the olives have lost most of their moisture and become dry and lightly crisp. Check them toward the end of the cooking time, as the exact timing will depend on how much moisture the olives contain.
Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool. Once cool, they will become firmer and can be crumbled over the pasta.
2. Cook the Tomatoes Briefly
Cut the tomatoes into cubes.
Heat a little extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and add the tomatoes. Cook them for only two or three minutes, stirring gently.
The purpose is not to make a tomato sauce. The tomatoes should soften slightly while keeping their shape and freshness.
Turn off the heat, season with salt and add a few basil leaves, thinly sliced. Set the tomatoes aside to cool.
3. Grill the Eggplant
Cut the eggplant into slices approximately 1–2 cm / ½–¾ inch thick.
Brush or drizzle the slices with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil. Stir in bawl.
Cook them on a hot grill pan or outdoor grill until tender and lightly marked on both sides.
Transfer the grilled eggplant to a plate and allow it to cool completely. Once cool, cut it into small cubes.
Cooling the slices before cutting helps the eggplant retain its shape instead of becoming too soft.
4. Cook the Pasta
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Add the pasta and cook it until al dente, following the cooking time indicated on the package or like we use to say: A SENTIMENTO! so follow your feeling, your taste
Drain the pasta and leave it to cool for a few minutes. It does not need to become completely cold, but it should no longer be steaming when the mozzarella is added.
5. Bring Everything Together
Cut the mozzarella into small cubes and drain away any excess liquid.
Place the pasta in a large serving bowl. Add the mozzarella, the briefly cooked tomatoes and the cubes of grilled eggplant.
Add some fresh basil and the dried oregano. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and mix gently, taking care not to break the vegetables.
Finish with the crispy black olive crumble, adding some throughout the pasta and leaving a little for the surface.
Serve at room temperature or after some fridge hours with one final thread of extra virgin olive oil.
Why the Ingredients Are Prepared Separately
The character of this pasta comes from preparing each ingredient independently.
The tomatoes remain fresh because they are cooked for only a few minutes. The eggplant develops a smoky flavour on the grill. The mozzarella keeps its soft texture because it is added only after the pasta has cooled slightly.
The black olives provide the strongest contrast. Instead of being mixed into the pasta whole, they are transformed into a salty, crisp crumble that reaches every part of the dish.
It is a simple recipe, but its simplicity depends on giving each ingredient the preparation it needs.
Can Olives in Brine Be Used?
Olives preserved in brine are not the best choice for the crispy crumble.
They contain more water and often have a sharper flavour. Even after draining, they may remain too moist to dry evenly in the oven.
Black olives preserved in oil, vacuum-packed or cured in salt are more suitable. Drain them carefully before blending and baking.
Which Pasta Shape Works Best?
Short pasta shapes are the most practical because they mix easily with the diced vegetables and mozzarella.
Orecchiette, fusilli, casarecce and mezze maniche are all good options. A shape with curves, ridges or a hollow centre will collect some of the tomato juices and small pieces of the olive crumble.
Can This Pasta Salad Be Prepared in Advance?
The individual ingredients can be prepared several hours in advance and kept separately.
Grill and cut the eggplant, cook the tomatoes, prepare the mozzarella and dry the olives. Cook and assemble the pasta closer to serving time.
Add the black olive crumble at the end so that it remains crisp.
Is This a Traditional Sicilian Recipe?
This is not a formally codified traditional Sicilian dish. It is a contemporary farm recipe made according to a familiar Mediterranean way of cooking: beginning with seasonal ingredients and using simple techniques to preserve their individual character.
The final dish is generous without being heavy—soft eggplant, fresh mozzarella, warm tomatoes, basil, oregano and the dark, savoury crunch of black olives.
Several separate preparations, brought together only at the end. Exactly as we cooked it during our online class.