This dish is a combination of spinach and black olives with noodles (or pasta). For the noodles it can be egg noodles, lo mein noodles or soba noodles. And, of course, you can substitute spaghetti, linguine, etc. That’s why I use the term “easy noodles.”    Anything you have on hand will do. For the recipe itself, you just boil the noodles and, while that’s being done, you sauté the spinach with garlic and onions. Then add the olives and a mix of water, cornstarch and sasôn, a seasoning and flavoring popular in what we call Criollo cuisine. or native Puerto Rican cooking.  The sasón you can find in almost any store or supermarket these days. Goya makes a good brand. Essentially, this is an easy enough dish that family and friends will enjoy more than once—and it makes for a great vegetarian meal.

Note that in this ripe, processed olives contain a lot of salt as it is. So, you may be judicious with the additional salt content used in the recipe. Just use your common sense. the rest is fairly easy.

Ingredients:

1 pound lo mein  or soba noodles (can substitute spaghetti or linguine)
1 (10 oz.) package frozen spinach
½ cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon turmeric
1 cup black olives, sliced in half
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. In a pot or Durch oven, bring water 4 quarts to a rolling boil.
  2. Add noodles, cover and cook 4 minutes
  3.  Add spinach and cook, stirring, breaking up chunks of frozen spinach in boiling water. Cook another 4 minutes.
  4.  Meanwhile, while noodles and spinach are cooking, in a cup mix ½ water, cornstarch, oregano and turmeric.
  5.  Drain noodles, put back in pot and add water-spice mixture, stir to combine.
  6. Add olives, season with salt and pepper and cook another 2 minutes. Top with a couple of pats of butter and serve.
    Yield: 4-6 servings.