We're following in Alice's footsteps to help expand our cooking repertoires after 10 months of being stuck in the kitchen.
Join us as we show off one of our easy favorites: Crescent Dragonwagon's Beans and Greens Pasta with Lemon, Garlic, and Chili. (Yes, the author's name is one of the reasons we love it so much.)
Here's a link to the recipe.
It is a very flexible recipe, so I will tell you exactly what we're going to use to remove some ambiguity.
- 1 pound dried fusilli pasta like this. The pasta is optional. If you use it, pick a pasta with structure like fusilli, shells, or ziti. We're using gluten free because of a sensitivity. Gluten-full pasta works great, too.
- 2 dried red New Mexican chili peppers like this. You can use any dried chili, or none.
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 bunch lacinato/Tuscan/dino kale like this. Any hearty green will work. It should be raw (not cooked or frozen). It can be pre-chopped from the store. We are budgeting time to wash it and cut it up during the Zoom.
- 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Any canned or cooked bean will work. 1 can = 1 1/2 cups cooked. Don't come with dry beans that aren't cooked -- we won't have time to cook them during the Zoom.
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parmesan cheese (about 1 ounce, grated). Optional.
- 1/2 pound cooked salmon. Completely optional. We're adding this to bump up the protein of this meal. Some other easy proteins: eggs, sausages, marinated tofu, tuna, .... We will have time to warm up a protein, but not to cook anything elaborate.
Equipment recommended:
- Phone or laptop you can use in the kitchen for Zoom
- Large skillet
- Spatula for stirring/serving
- Pot for cooking pasta
- Timer for cooking the pasta
- Colander for draining pasta
- Knife and cutting board for chopping greens
- Citrus juicer or a fork or strong hands for juicing the lemon
- Range hood/fan if you use the chili pepper -- that step can get acrid.
- Cheese grater for parmesan if using
- Way to warm up your alternate starches or extra protein if necessary
My expectation is that we will start the meeting at 4:00 and have dinner by 6:00. That is very generous timing for this simple recipe -- I'm assuming there will be chatting, time required for everyone to get to the same step, and that at least one thing will go wrong. As Julie's mother said, "If you're going to run railroads, you're going to have wrecks. At least you can eat your kitchen wrecks."
This will make 4 modest servings or two very generous servings. (If you skip the pasta, count on it serving two. If you use pasta and a protein, it will be 4 satisfying servings.) It stores fine and warms up well.
Drop me a line if you plan on attending! You can respond to this ad or email me at [email protected] or text me at 206-979-2831.
Zoom info:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87939811495?pwd=Z1YwNEpqMlhXUnBGeU1qSVVjUStaUT09
Meeting ID: 879 3981 1495
Passcode: chickpea