Midweek Wrap-Up

Shells With Garlic, White Beans and  Roasted Tomatoes

I know, it's Wednesday and I'm about to talk about Meatless Monday. (Bad blogging habits live here.) But I wanted you to know that Meatless Monday did, in fact, happen in our household this week. I picked another Ellie Krieger recipe, mainly because I had all of the ingredients in the house, but the recipe did sound good. Two birds with one stone? Sure thing. The husband didn't think the recipe sounded that bad, either. We were on a roll.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but we didn't actually eat whole wheat pasta for a change. The husband found an open box of regular pasta shells in the back of the pantry - oops - so we thought we should try to use up that box before opening another. And, I thought, shells would be nice with the beans; they'd give the beans a place to hide and perhaps result in a few flavor surprises.

The tomatoes were to be roasted at 450 degrees F for about 40 minutes, so I started with those first. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I fully understood Ellie when she instructed me to cut the tomatoes into eight wedges. I kind of cut our tomatoes into chunks, threw them into a glass pan and drizzled them with olive oil and dashed them with salt and mixed-up pepper. Then I tucked a few garlic cloves into the corners of the pan and threw the tomatoes into the oven.

The pasta cooked just like regular ol' pasta and was topped with a simple lemon, garlic and basil "sauce," and all I had to do with the beans was to drain them, so this recipe was basically a lot of sitting around waiting for the tomatoes to cook. Unfortunately for our Monday night that meant a bit of pretzel snacking, as the husband and I were both awfully hungry after work, and the tomatoes seemed to take forever. (If you have experience roasting tomatoes, please share your secrets!)

Although the tomatoes took awhile longer to cook than I expected - and I'm not even really sure I cooked them correctly - dinner was pretty good. The lemon and roasted tomato flavors made me think of summer. I'm not sure why. This dish just had sort of a fresh taste to it. So seeing as how it made me dream of warmer weather and the husband ate it without complaining, I think we can consider this one a keeper. 

Pasta With Garlic, White Beans and Roasted Tomatoes

Adapted From Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave

1 1/2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

3 garlic cloves, unpeeled

1 tablespoon olive oil

a dash of salt

a dash of mixed-up pepper

1/2 (15.5 ounce) can great northern beans

4 ounces uncooked pasta

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon basil, or more, to taste

2 tablespoon grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Cut the tomatoes into wedges; put the tomatoes and garlic in a glass baking dish. Drizzle with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, uncovered, until the tomatoes are slightly charred, 30-40 minutes.

Cook the pasta. RInse and drain the beans in a colander in the sink. Drain the cooked pasta over the beans. Return the beans and pasta to the pasta pot.

Once the tomatoes are cooked, remove the garlic from the dish and mince into a small bowl. Mix the lemon juice and remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil with the garlic. 

Stir the garlic and oil mixture into the pasta and season with basil, salt and pepper, and Parmesan.

Add in the tomatoes and serve. Enjoy!

Serves 2

According to Ellie's calculations: 476 calories, 14.5 g fat, 70 g carbs, 9.5 g fiber, 16.5 g protein