Pasta With Chickpeas

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 1/2 cups onions, finely chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary (2 inches each)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 cups fresh tomatoes, chopped (or 3 cups canned tomatoes or 28-ounce can, undrained)
• 3 1/2 cups chickpeas, cooked (or two 15 ounce cans)
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 lb pasta, short chunky
• 2/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• fresh tomato, chopped (optional)

Recipe

• 1 heat the oil in a well-seasoned skillet or nonstick saucepan (i used a dutch oven, so i could puree the sauce right in the pan using my hand blender), and saute the onions, garlic and rosemary on low eat until the onions are soft - about 10 minutes.
• 2 add the tomatoes and half of the chickpeas and cook for another 10 minutes.
• 3 remove the rosemary springs and discard. if you have a hand blender, puree the mixture until smooth. otherwise, use a blender. be careful not to burn yourself.
• 4 return the sauce to the pan (if you'd removed it for blending), add the remaining chickpeas, and add salt and pepper to taste.
• 5 meanwhile, cook the pasta.
• 6 the original recipe suggests tossing the pasta and sauce together for serving, but we served them separately.
• 7 pass the feta and chopped tomatoes (if desired) at the table.