This vegetarian Christmas pasta is one you’ll come back to time and time again.

It’s made with figs – the quintessential festive fruit – green olives and ricotta. Together they bring a beautifully balanced and wonderfully Christmassy flavour.

I love figs in savoury recipes, but all too often they are paired with pancetta – not useful if you are making a vegetarian dish. Here, I’ve used green olives for that salty balance, and they work really well.

Ricotta brings its mild creaminess to make this a cheesy pasta dish, and a touch of thyme makes sure this has all of the flavour you would expect from a Christmas dish.

I like to serve this pasta dish on Christmas Eve, but it’s perfect for any time over the winter season.

The Ingredients

Onion – one brown onion is enough to bring a nice savoury note to this pasta.
Figs – use 4 medium figs. Too many figs will knock out the delicate balance in this recipe and make it too sweet.
Green olives – make sure they’re pitted. Aside from that, you can use any that you like.
Olive oil – use a good olive oil. It’s not just used to cook – it’s for flavour too, here, as we drizzle some in at the end.
Fresh thyme – for flavour and a little bit of decoration at the end.
Pasta– most short pastas will work. I used rigatoni.
Ricotta – I love the fresh creaminess that ricotta brings. However, goats cheese would work well here too.

Top Tips

Roasting the figs and olives – The figs, olives and onions will need about 20 minutes to roast, but keep an eye on them. You want them to be nice and soft with a little golden colour, but no bitterness.
Cooking the pasta – Cook the pasta al dente. The packet will usually tell you how long to cook for to achieve this, but if not taste test it while it’s cooking – you want a little bite to the pasta.
Get ahead – Though this pasta is at its best when cooked and eaten fresh, you can make it up to 24 hours in advance. Keep in the fridge and serve hot or cold when you’re ready.