Gemelli is another pasta shape that I like. Gemelli means “twins” and consists of two short intertwined pieces of pasta. I often make penne with green beans and gemelli gives the combination a nice visual change.
Speaking of green beans, if you can get your hands on the small, thin haricots verts (the fancy French words for green beans), please use them for this dish. They bear little resemblance to any of the endless varieties of the pole beans or bush beans that are so common. I lucked out this past weekend at the market because Donnie (one of my favorite organic farmers) wanted to get home around noon, so he reduced the price on his lovely organic haricots verts from $6.00 a pound to $3, and gave me about 1½ pounds for three bucks. Such a deal! If haricots verts are too pricey or are unavailable in your market, I’d suggest Blue Lake, a nice variety of bush beans, and would urge you to carefully pick through them to select the smallest and thinnest ones possible.
The “bacon” I use in this recipe is Upton’s Naturals Seitan Bacon. Instead of trying to fry it crisp, I treated it a little more like a pancetta, so that it stays nice and soft and gives a smoky flavor to the finished dish.
Last, but not least, I upped the protein quotient in this dish by adding organic garbanzo beans. All in all, it was a tasty mid-week dinner that took me about 45 minutes to make. I think the second time through (when I’m not trying to take notes) will be much faster!
If you’re looking for the recipe, it’s only a few clicks away. Just navigate over to the side bar and sign up for my newsletter, which will also give you my free guide to Meat Analogues – The Good, the Bad, and the Not So Tasty.
Enjoy your weekend!
You must be logged in to post a comment.