Pasta with Chickpeas and a Surprise
It was another Mark Bittman inspired dinner last night. Like the previous night’s recipe, this one had minimal directions since it came from “Kitchen Express” and it left a lot to my discretion regarding amounts of ingredients and seasoning. First I needed to cook some sausage that had been stripped of its casing. After it was cooked I added drained chickpeas and canned, diced tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn’t purchase a large can of tomatoes since I’d missed that in the directions when I went shopping, so our pasta was light on the tomatoes. Oh well, we lived. I added a few healthy shakes of crushed red pepper, but I should have added more. I mixed in the cooked pasta, I chose orechiette, and finally I had to add some greens. I added baby arugula, it said a few handfuls, but clearly it should have been the entire tub. Look how stingy the greens look in that dish. Once it cooks down, there’s nothing left. Of course, it needed to be saucier, so I added lots of cooking water from the pasta, and plenty of salt and pepper. I topped everyone’s plate with parmesan cheese even though the recipe said nothing about it.
As we ate I noticed that Louisa was ignoring the chickpeas on her plate and though she promised she’d get around to them, she never did. I asked Annie if she minded the chickpeas, too, and her response was my surprise of the night. “No, I like chickpeas,” she declared. But, not only that, she told me that she had really liked that odd chickpea soup I had made a few weeks earlier. I had no idea.
If I could do it over again, there would be a number of tweaks I’d make to the recipe. I would drop the chickpeas. Sorry, I like chickpeas in some things, but with the starchiness of pasta already on the plate, it feels like overkill even though it’s a protein. I would use hot sausage. I’d use a ton more greens. I would stir the pasta more while cooking it so those little ears didn’t all spoon together in the pot and come out impossibly stuck together (that’s the downside of cooking your pasta in the oven with an Aga, and not on top of the stove where you can watch and stir). I might toss in another savory item like olives. And a lot more cheese.
Maybe next week I won’t even turn to Bittman’s book, but come up with my own pasta hodgepodge instead. That’s if I remember while putting together my meal plan for the week.
What would be the ideal, non-traditional, pasta dish ingredients for you?
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Non traditional ingredients? Today I woiuld play around with slivered almonds and orzo with some melted butter nuttiness. If I went really crazy I might work with a little honey too.
I would go for everything but the honey. How about golden raisins instead?