No food in the fridge

I was faced with what seems to be recurring problem for me this week. After being away for a couple days- my refrigerator was nearly empty, this time it was special because my pantry was also sparse and my early morning attempt to make it to the Westchester Wednesday market appeared to be rained out. All in all, not a great start.

So after a little ingenuity and crossed fingers this is what I came up with:

Roasted red pepper chickpea pasta surprise (I always add the word surprise on any dish that is a little different, just because it’s fun). I found an onion, potato, pasta, dried chickpeas, and the surprise – roasted red pepper tapenade left from last weeks market. I ate it last week with crackers and this was my attempt to restructure the dip.

Ingredients

1 brown or sweet onion, chopped

1 ½ cup dried chickpeas or 2 cans

1 small potato (optional)

1 bay leaf

1 package of pasta

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of cayenne ppepper

1 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp roasted red pepper tapenade

Soak chickpeas (overnight is preferable but I went for two hours- just to soften a bit). Rinse chickpeas and cover with water in a small pot, add half of the potato and the bay leaf. Bring water to a boil and let simmer for about an hour and a half or until beans have softened. (You can always bypass these steps by using canned beans- I find them much faster, but dried beans are cheaper and don’t have any preservatives or added sodium to them).

Begin to boil salted water in large pot for cooking pasta. Finely dice onion into small pieces

Sauté onions in oil in a pan until they become browned and translucent.

Add chickpeas, cayenne pepper, salt, tapenade, and a ladle of pasta water. Simmer until pasta is ready.
Drain pasta and mix together. Surprise, it’s dinner!