This is such a simple & fresh dish, yet so tasty & fulfilling.  It also makes a great cold pasta salad for lunch the next day!

I have used strozzapreti (pronounced stroh-tzuh-PRAY-tee), mainly because I like the shape and the thickness – orecchiette (little ears), shells or bow ties would work well too.  Strozzapreti, I have discovered, is italian for ‘priest strangler’, because it is shaped like a rolled towel, although what that has to do with priests I am not entirely sure.  For more information on different pasta shapes, names and meanings, check out this website… www.foodsubs.com/PastaShapes.html

ingredients – serves 4

500g strozzapreti

350g soft feta

handful fresh, rinsed mint

1 cup frozen peas

juice of 1/2 a lemon

grated parmesan, sea salt, pepper and a good quality olive oil to serve

method

Cook pasta in a pot of water (with a couple of pinches of salt and a dash of olive oil) according to the packet instructions.  Meanwhile, defrost the peas in a colander over the steam.  Once the water has been drained, return the pasta to the head and combine with the peas and a dash of olive oil to coat the pasta. Heat through for about a minute.

Serve onto plates, crumble feta over the top, drizzle with lemon juice and scatter with mint and parmesan.  (Do not put the feta and mint in the pot with the pasta – the mint will go soggy and brown and the feta will melt and destroy the presentation of the dish – I did this by mistake once before… big disaster!)

I also often add pan fried chorizo to this dish which tastes and looks fantastic…