Easy Supper: Pasta with Fresh Garbanzo Beans, Olives & Bacon ♥

Garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas: for good reason, they're rarely found fresh, only dried and canned. They take forever to extract from their pods, an hour per pound and then yielding only a couple of scant cups of fresh beans. Before launching this task, I recommend a friend to help, a cold drink to savor and a shady spot on a hot summer day ... then settling in to simply enjoy. There's no rushing this job, it's not hard, just tedious.

But tasty? Indeed! The wrinkled-brain peas come one or two to a pod, some large and white and woody (toss these) and some small and underdeveloped (these too). And they're good raw, if a little raw-tasting.

For cooking, I tried them steamed with a little butter (good!) but used most in this easy pasta supper. I also tried sautéeing them with the bacon but they really didn't cook enough that way, the liquid seems very important, plus the bacon flavor overpowered the delicate fresh flavor.

Oh. And don't worry about access to fresh garbanzo beans for this great supper pasta, just use frozen peas which I have a thousand times before.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES The Recipe Box has recipes for main dishes packed with vegetables and some vegetarian suppers, too.

FROM GREAT FOOD BLOGS
101 Cookbooks ... boiled fresh garbanzo beans
Erin's Kitchen ... grilled fresh garbanzo beans
Mahanandi ... methi chole (using frozen fresh garbanzo beans from Trader Joe's)

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PASTA with FRESH GARBANZO BEANS, OLIVES & BACON

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 25 minutes
Serves 4

This is a "concept recipe" so please do adjust to suit your own taste!

Cooked pasta (I used a beautiful spinach pasta from a local Chinese grocery that cooks up in only five minutes)

About 2 cups fresh garbanzo beans (or frozen peas)

3 - 4 slices bacon
Green onion, chopped
Pitted olives
Plenty of black pepper (don't skip the pepper!)

Cook and drain the pasta. Steam the garbanzo beans (no need to steam the frozen peas).

In a large skillet, cook the bacon til just beginning to crisp. Add the onion and let cook a bit. Add the olive and let warm through. Stir in the steamed garbanzo beans or frozen peas, then the pasta. Season with pepper, toss and serve.