My sweetie had a long week and requested a comforting pasta dish for dinner. We turned on the Italian Cooking Music station, poured some wine and I looked through the larder. The result was this crazy dish, which could easily be vegetarian or veganized, if you are so inclined.
I put on a big pot of pasta water with lots of salt. Chopped up and sautéed in olive oil some white onion, red bell peppers, kale and chicken sausage (leave the sausage out or use a veggie one if avoiding animals products). Sprinkled on some red pepper flake and sautéed until soft. Opened a can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained. Chopped up a few cloves of garlic. Added the beans and garlic to the pan, poured in about ½ cup of water and a small spoonful of Better Than Bouillon stock paste (I used chicken but veggie would work too). Put the lid on and let it all meld on lowish heat.
Dropped the elbow pasta into the boiling water (any smallish shape works here but I chose elbows since it was one of the MANY partially used boxes we had on hand, SMH). Once cooked, I scooped the pasta from the pot into the pan with the other goodies. Purposely did not try to drain off all of the pasta water – that starchy liquid is what makes a creamy sauce! I added more of the pasta water to adjust the thickness and quantity of the sauce in this dish; that stuff is liquid gold!
Let it all simmer for a sec, tasted it and added a bit of sea salt, then served with freshly grated parm and lots of black pepper. In the summer I would add some chopped basil from my garden to top it off.
