COVID Cooking: Ten-Minute Chickpea Pasta with The Easiest Cherry Tomato, Mint, and Chili Sauce

Lately, I have been getting into a rhythm.  Maybe because everything is the same.  My apartment.  My patterns.  My schedule.  Sheltering in place, I have discovered, doesn’t lead to a lot of serendipity, spontaneity, or rushing distractions.

And I have come to quietly enjoy the predictable pattern of life now.  I don’t know about you, but I am not among those with “extra time”.  I hear this discussed as a commonality; it just doesn’t apply to me.  I know there are those of you our there who are, like me, full-time parenting and full-time working.  Or are stressed for myriad other reasons (how can you not be?).  Or are spending your time in other packed ways (demonstrating, nursing, cleaning, planning), and cooking isn’t one of them.  So, you may be in the mood for something quick.

I have been making this, like, two to four times a week.  I am that committed to it.  Pasta is a great quarantine staple – long-lasting, filling, comforting, quick to make – but I had had enough.  So, I switched to chickpea pasta, which I love, not only because it’s legume-based, but because it has that lovely, nutty flavor that feels so Sicilian to me in its own lovely way.  I cook a box of that (I like the Barilla brand because the only ingredient is chickpeas, but use what you like; you could also certainly use regular pasta here), and while it’s boiling away, I make the easiest and best sauce by whirling up a pint of fresh cherry tomatoes with a stick blender and adding it to a pot with olive oil, a sprig of fresh mint (you could use basil), and a pinch of dried chili flakes.

The result is this under-10 minute, guilt-free lunch that whisks me away (mentally) to my honeymoon while I am eating it at my desk in my bedroom on a Zoom call.

Wishing you love and health and good food from NYC….

Chickpea Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes, Mint, and Chili

serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1 8- to 9- ounce box of chickpea pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes

1 sprig of fresh mint

1 pinch of dried red chili flakes (optional)

METHOD

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in the jug that comes with your hand blender (a measuring cup also works well), and using the hand blender on top speed, eviscerate the tomatoes into a puree.  You can also do this in the food processor, but using a hand blender is so much easier to clean up.

In a small skillet, heat the olive oil on medium heat.  Add the tomatoes, mint, and chili if using.  Season with salt.  Simmer for 5 minutes, until the color of the sauce slightly darkens and gets less milky.

Drain the pasta and add to the sauce.  Simmer for 1 minute more, so that pasta can absorb some of the sauce.  Serve!