booty spicy chickpea penne
Prelude recipe: herbed peppers
Drizzle olive oil over a hot iron skillet, and sauté yellow and red pepper strips until soft and slightly charred (about 20 minutes). Halfway through the cooking time, generously sprinkle with dried Herbes de Provence and sea salt. Store in a glass jar covered in olive oil and store until use. Keeps for weeks in the fridge, but happier on the counter out of sunlight and used in a week.
Booty Spicy Chickpea Penne
This is a great weeknight one-bowl dinner if you have pre-cooked pasta stashed in your fridge like I happened to have along with some chickpeas I had soaked and cooked. An easy lunch while I was cleaning my space today. I am usually a big slut, but in this decade of 30s, I am finding keeping my space clean helps me get more done.
If you do not have cooked pasta on hand, boil a pot of water at the outset and cook some noodles. Penne is good with the chunky sauce, and any similar short, hearty textured noodle will be harmonious.
Slice a handful of cherry tomatoes in half across their fat middles. Chop a few yellow squash spears.
Heat a big iron skillet over medium heat and toast a generous sprinkle of hot and sweet paprika and turmeric, stirring with a wooden spoon & careful not to burn. Add olive oil and turn up the heat, a medium high flame – almost a high flame, be bold about it; it is tasty when the pasta fries. Add the tomatoes and about a teaspoon of sea salt. Cook until sizzling, stir and let it sizzle again and keep at it while you drain a large can of chickpeas and rinse them thoroughly (or maybe you have soaked and cooked chickpeas for yourself this week, good for you, muffin.). Add your chickpeas and pasta. Cook—I like to let it sit unstirred for five minutes or more, searing, gathering a little crust.
Chop the oil, herbed pepper strips: either stick a knife in the jar, or cut them in the pan (it is a messy pain to pull them out and slice on a board- unnecessary!). Stir a generous amount of peppers and their oil into the pasta. Cook for five minutes or so with the squash spread on top of everything; sprinkle with more Herbes de Provence.
This dish is happy to sit in the pan with the heat on low or even off for a long time (since the pan hold the heat) while you finish a task or when family folk are trailing in and our of the kitchen, looking for food on their own schedule.
