Pappardelle with rose harissa, black olives and capers from Ottolenghi Simple (page 188) by Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

Greek yoghurt
cherry tomatoes
Show all ingredients...
EYB Comments

Can substitute wide flat pasta of your choice for pappardelle pasta.

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

Eat Your Books

Can substitute wide flat pasta of your choice for pappardelle pasta.
hannah_bqiphg on May 05, 2026

Easy and delicious. Great for when you dont have much in the fridge!
annie_6swuo4 on April 12, 2026

Love this recipe. Made it several times and keep coming back to it. Find the flavour so good.
chezlarios on August 02, 2025

I made this with normal harissa in place of rose harissa, tagliatelle instead of pappardelle, and normal plain yogurt instead of Greek yogurt. I would say it was okay - I did like the spice brought in by the harissa. But I felt it was a little dry, like there was too little sauce, even with the yogurt.
Tealismyname on July 27, 2025

Absolutely delicious. Makes a lot of pasta- I'd say this serves 6. We used the Tunisian "Le Phare du Cap Bon Harissa Paste" which is divine and rather spicy. Cut in half and provides a deliciously warming heat. I think using very ripe and sweet cherry tomatoes is key so would only make this in summer when they're at the height of the season.
apw2020 on January 21, 2025

One of my favorite pasta recipes of all time. The combination of yogurt, harissa and pasta is incredible.
Pandan on October 31, 2024

This was ok, but I was quite bored with it. Only made half of the recipe with Ottolenghi‘s recommended brand of Harissa and Linguine instead of Pappardelle. The latter would have been better, I guess. Still have leftovers and not that excited to have more.
dinnermints on November 13, 2023

I think the success of this recipe largely depends on your harissa. I used 5T of a milder homemade rose harissa and thought the final dish needed more oomph (salt, lemon juice, maybe more olives). I used less pasta (13 oz) since I like a saucier pasta, but next time would sub chicken broth or canned tomatoes for the water. Would probably try again with a spicier harissa and these changes. I served this with panfried shrimp, but love the suggestion of chorizo.
bernalgirl on September 19, 2023

Great weeknight dinner, full of flavor with the yogurt providing a cooling contrast.
EmilyR on April 28, 2023

Followed the recipe exactly as written with the only exception being I used vanilla skyr as that's what I had and it was excellent. It's definitely simple and packed with flavor.
meggan on October 28, 2022

Good but not great- maybe add garlic?
CheesyKranskyLove on October 04, 2022

I bought a jar of rose harissa for this and honestly could not tell the difference between that and regular harissa. Just my 2 cents,
KarinaFrancis on May 23, 2021

Delicious, flavour packed and quick to get on the table. We left out the olives (silver fox doesn’t like them) but other than that made it as written and loved it. The SF suggested we add chorizo next time to replace the olives....hmmmm
westminstr on March 08, 2021

I used a full box of Pomi and omitted the water. Also didn’t have parsley, diced the onion fine, and reduced the rose harissa to 2 tbsp. I thought the sauce was quite good! Served w pecorino instead of yogurt. Everyone seemed to like it though E complained about the papardelle.
clkandel on January 02, 2021

This dish is excellent. Very fast to prepare. The yogurt adds creaminess and blends the flavors together nicely.
bernalgirl on January 02, 2021

I didn't have 14oz of cherry tomatoes so I used a 14oz can of crushed. I also didn't have the olives, so I upped the capers a bit. I used four tablespoons of harissa instead of 3, and slightly less water since there is liquid in the crushed tomatoes.
cultus.girl on December 19, 2020

Really enjoyed this one and would make a half again of sauce for the amount of pasta. I agree the yoghurt was needed to push it into the excellent category.
Baxter850 on November 15, 2020

Tasty but needs extra salt and the sauce only makes enough for about 1/2 lb of dried pasta.
TrishaCP on August 13, 2020

We liked this just fine- but I felt like it really needed the yogurt. I personally thought the pasta to sauce ratio was fine, since the flavors are really strong (used the full amount of rose harissa).
Poppyseedbagel on June 19, 2020

Excellent and even nicer than puttanesca
VineTomato on December 15, 2019

Mr VT loved this. I thought it was okay, like a puttanesca but without the delicious anchovy flavour. Mr VT abhors anchovies, so this could be a great pasta for other anchovy haters. I have written the word anchovy many times for recipe that does not contain anchovies!
JJ2018 on May 20, 2019

This was nice but I wouldn’t be in a rush to repeat. Reduced the harissa slightly. There was a lot of pasta to sauce ingredients so ratio seemed slightly off
hirsheys on May 02, 2019

This is a very simple dish to prepare, which I chose because I had some grape tomatoes needing to be used up. You basically caramelize some onion (which went pretty fast, actually, since the heat is set fairly high), then add harissa (I didn't have the rose version), halved tomatoes, halved kalamatas (I coarsely chopped them), some capers, and a little salt, then cook it all down into a nice sauce (adding in a little chopped parsley). You're supposed to serve with a dollop of yogurt, which is interesting. I used the mild harissa that's open in my fridge for this, and really wished it was spicy instead. I also didn't have pappardelle, so I used this dish as an excuse to use some interesting mixed shape pasta I had in my pantry. (It worked well.) The dish itself is quite nice, but it doesn't taste all that different from a standard puttanesca and I think I prefer my own recipe to this one.
anya_sf on May 02, 2019

I used half the rose harissa so it wouldn't be too spicy and it definitely wasn't; I'll try more next time. I made the sauce 2 days ahead. This was a simple, delicious pasta dish that I would definitely make again. There isn't a ton of sauce relative to pasta, but the ratio seemed just right since the sauce has strong flavors. I'd never had yogurt on pasta before, but it was great. I used fettuccine pasta, but really, any shape would work.
mrshalf on January 29, 2019

Definitely amazing! Will absolutely put this into rotation and for any skeptics out there - the regular harissa paste from DEA was spot on. Not too spicy and definitely didn't miss the "rose harissa". This was fantastic!
Rutabaga on January 04, 2019

This is good, although I think I like the chickpea and pasta recipe from this book better. I used about two tablespoons of rose harissa, and it was only mildly spicy, yet still too spicy for the kids. Fortunately, I addressed that concern by setting some plain pasta aside for them. Soft goat cheese is also good on the pasta if you aren't using yogurt.
lilham on October 17, 2018

An unusual take on a tomato pasta, but absolutely delicious. I used linguine instead of a flat pasta and tinned tomatoes instead of fresh.
Astrid5555 on September 15, 2018

Most delicious pasta dish I have cooked in years. Halved the recipe but only used one third of the rose harissa paste. Had just the right spiciness for us. Husband licked the plate and then we fought over the leftover sauce. Can‘t wait to make this again.