More Cheese More Chocolate

After an impulsive purchase of a box of pasta that I had no need for I had to clear out a spot for it in my cabinet.  The easiest solution was to remove a similarly shaped box, which happened to be another box of pasta that had been hanging around for probably a couple years.  I’m sure pasta is only supposed to be kept around for so long, but I went ahead and used it.  I like to live on the edge.  Kind of.  It’s not like I eat raw meat or drink sour milk or seek out metal poles during thunderstorms.  I just don’t like to waste food.  I cooked the cup or two of remaining pasta, mixed it with some garbanzos, kale, and parmesan, and dug in.  It was delicious.  

2 cups or so cooked pasta

3-4 kale leaves

1 cup garbanzo beans

1/4 cup parmesan

Olive oil

Black pepper

You can use any kind of pasta you want for this.  I have no idea what kind this is.  Knowing me I just bought it because I liked the way it looked.  Small shells or something similar in size and shape to the garbanzos would work well.  

Tear the leafy parts of the kale from the thick stem, and then tear them into smaller pieces.  Discard the stems.  

Warm a little bit of olive oil over medium heat in some sort of pan.  I used the same saucepan that I cooked the pasta in to save myself a little dishwashing.  Add the kale and cook for just a few minutes until it darkens in color and softens up a bit.  

Combine the pasta and garbanzos in a large bowl.  

Add the kale.  

Grate some parmesan over the top.  

Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle liberally with freshly cracked pepper.  

I was just making this up as I went, and by the time it was all thrown together it was just slightly warm.  I really liked it that way, but if you’d rather have it hot you can heat the kale and the garbanzos in a pan for the last few minutes that the pasta boils.