Today was an interesting one, and I’m not just referring to dinner. Many things were going on, both above and under the hood, and by the time I got to class I thought I was having a hum-dinger of a day . . . and then it turns out that my methods teacher had a root canal after school (at Bismarck High) and before class (my class.) That put things into perspective for me.
Anyway, I have to keep it on track because I’m supposed to be doing homework right now. I got home from class at about 9:00 pm last night, and I’m committed to “meatless” day, so I knew I would have to make it quick and simple tonight. The recipe I found on allrecipes.com promised five ingredients and a ready time of 20 minutes. It actually took longer than that because I didn’t think to boil water while prepping the garlic / oil mix or the basil, and if you look at the recipe and count the number of ingredients, you’ll find that there are actually six of them.
Speaking of basil, this is the first opportunity I have had to use fresh basil, and I’d have to say it’s definitely better than dried, but kind of disconcerting to work with. There were darkish spots on some of the leaves that I think were wilty, but not slimy like you might think of a leafy edible – like spinach would be. I just cut away the big ones and left the small ones in, and I’m happy to report that I’m still alive.
Alterations:
We substituted a can of Full Circle garbanzo beans for the white beans in the recipe, because Karisa has a texture-based aversion to most beans, but garbanzos are okay. I don’t mind, because I really like them myself. Also, the package of farfalle was twelve ounces, so we used all of it because we figured it wouldn’t hurt and we couldn’t see ourselves using it in the near future. Rather than crushing the garlic, I used our parrot-shaped garlic press, and mixed the garlic in the oil using the measuring tablespoon, kind of chopping at the flat chunk that was left from the press.
Result:
It was good! We enjoyed our five ingredient pasta toss with two asiago cheese rolls apiece and some Hoptober beer by New Belgium. Instead of drizzling the other half of the garlic / oil mixture over our servings as indicated in the recipe, we decided to tear chunks from our rolls and dip them in the oil. That worked great. While I don’t recommend sleeping on a stomach full of pasta and tomato, the recipe made a fast and simple vegan supper (note: the rolls probably violate veganism.) Pictures of the feast are below, followed by the link to the recipe. My thanks to allrecipes.com!
Rob's Surf Report 