Whole Grain Pasta with Garlic and Pepper, Toast with Lemon Roasted Garlic White Bean

A few days ago, I was in nearby downtown Carrboro NC and smelled some garlic cooking; ever since then, I've been thinking of making a garlicky pasta dish. Today, I used up what we had left of DeBoles brand whole-grain spaghetti-style pasta, a gluten-free pasta with whole grain brown rice flour, white rice flour, rice bran, amaranth flour, and quinoa flower.

I chopped two cloves of garlic into small, maybe 1/8" or a little smaller, pieces and started slowly cooking the garlic with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a cast iron pan over low-medium heat. Over this low heat, the garlic just slowly simmered and didn't brown, with the flavor nicely developing. After maybe 12-15 minutes of the simmer, I added about a third of a small red bell pepper and a third of a small green bell pepper that I had cut into approximately 1/4" pieces, and continued cooking another 3 or 4 minutes; the pepper was still fairly firm. I then added some hot red pepper flakes and maybe 4 or 5 fresh basil leaves from my garden, coarsely hand torn into thirds or quarters. I cooked just another minute or so, then served atop the pasta, mixing some salt in.

I normally avoid beans as they sometimes upset my stomach, but I recently purchased Cool Beans brand lemon roasted garlic white bean spread. I toasted some Le Miche sourdough bread and put a dollop of the spread on top. Dinner was tasty and good!