Bold, briny and tangy, this 15-minute pasta is full of personality. Olives are first slightly blistered in oil, drawing out their brininess, then crumbled feta is stirred into the pasta at the end until melty. Keep the feta chunky when breaking it apart so that the squares become soft and creamy, tasting almost baked. Castelvetrano olives are best here for their meaty texture and gentle flavor, but you can also use your preferred olive. Smash them with the flat side of a chef’s knife — or even the heel of your palm in a pinch — then use your fingers to pluck the olive flesh off the pit. Any stubborn meat clinging to the pit is fair game to be eaten then and there.
In a 1974 cookbook, the Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi published a recipe for pasta all’infuriata, furious pasta, a chile-and-vodka-spiked tomato number. It’s one of the first written accounts of the Russian liquor in pasta and may be related to the penne alla vodka that has been a staple of many Italian American menus. For good reason: The alcohol is said to help fat disperse more evenly, keeping the sauce glossy and creamy, and to enhance the sharp heat and deep savory flavors of the dish. The ricotta serving suggestion draws inspiration from the creamy tomato soup with three dollops of cool, sweet ricotta on top from the now-closed Caffe Falai in Manhattan’s NoLIta neighborhood. The ricotta lends coolness both in temperature and in flavor, lending relief between bites of spicy booziness.
Coronation chicken salad is an easy, pantry-friendly dish, loosely based on a posh, classically French chicken recipe that was created to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. This is the recipe you’d find during its heyday in Britain in the 1980s: a curried chicken salad loaded with dried fruit, mango chutney and sliced almonds, usually served as a sandwich filling or on top of baked potatoes. Debates rage over whether to include diced apricots or golden raisins (also called sultanas), but since each works well with the other flavors, you can use whichever you like. If you want a more intensely golden color, stir in ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric with the curry. And if you’re starting with leftover cooked chicken or a rotisserie chicken (you’ll need 6 cups), just skip Step 1.