Olive Walnut Pasta. The pairing of nutty walnuts and tangy green olives makes for an unusual, distinctive flavor.

20250608 #breakfastdiary 1421, 21°C/cloudy, 20 min/exercise (M) On the difficulty of making a different breakfast every day, as I wrote in my profile, barring anything unusual, The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus said that everything is in motion, nothing stays still, and so no one can step into the same river twice. Breakfast is really no different, when you think about it. Even a breakfast that looks identical — made with eggplant and shiitake mushrooms bought from the same place, using the same recipe — can never truly be the same breakfast twice. So this is, in a sense, the spirit running through "a breakfast different from yesterday's." In practice, "a breakfast different from yesterday's" really means something closer to "a breakfast made for the first time" — same ingredients, but a different cooking method and a fresh plating. And a "first-time breakfast" always comes with its own struggles. Some days both the taste and the plating come out exactly as I hoped; other days it's too bland and I have to grate in extra Parmigiano Reggiano to fix the seasoning; and some days the exploding egg custard doesn't explode the way I imagined, leaving me staring in despair at a deflated egg custard. When the texture of hummus — made from chickpeas soaked overnight and blended — doesn't turn out right, I sometimes blame the blender, thinking "right, I really should've bought that blender Starbucks uses." And with soufflé pancakes, which I've never once gotten right, I blame this pan for not distributing heat evenly and go searching online for one with better heat conduction. Like that line from Between Calmness and Passion (2001) — not quite sure "when, and how much, to open my heart" — a "first-time breakfast" is always difficult, because I still don't really know when and how much to adjust the heat, the doneness of the ingredients, or the seasoning. (Me, breakfast: lonely or sad, I always eat) Ah, I should have bought pitted olives — cue "should have + PP" (regret over something not done in the past). But it's the weekend, so there's plenty of time. Without panicking, I calmly picked out just the olive flesh while the pasta boiled. (If only I'd had a thick plastic straw, it would've been one shot, one kill.) Anyway, that's the story behind today's 600kcal olive walnut pasta. The pairing of nutty walnuts and tangy green olives makes for an unusual, distinctive flavor.

2.5 cups penne (any short pasta works), 1 cup walnuts, 1 cup green olives, 1 lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 clove garlic

1. Boil the penne in salted water. 2. Heat olive oil in a pan and cook the walnuts and green olives for 3-4 minutes. Once the pan is filled with a fragrant aroma, turn off the heat and add minced garlic, salt, and pepper, mixing evenly. 3. Add the penne and 1/2 cup pasta water, and mix evenly. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pasta water. 4. Turn off the heat and add lemon zest and the juice of 1/2 a lemon. 5. Plate it up and top with a little grana padano cheese.

Inspired by @nytcooking