Grandma grew up poor and often made pasta meals like this one with different peas, macaroni and assorted beans, it was a protein/carb meal that we loved and full of flavor.
When times get tough, depression meals were my family's specialty growing up in the 1950s, and parents and grandparents from the late 1800s knew all the tricks and often even used the same meat bone for different soups and stews to flavor the meal.
Low income and tough times can still bring happy times and memories to the table of togetherness and family love through food, this is one recipe that achieved that in my lifetime.
Pasta and Beans, Peas Substitutions
- black beans
- chickpeas aka garbanzo beans
- cannellini bean
- great northern white bean
- petite peas
- fresh pole beans
- 15 dried beans cooked first
- rice instead of pasta
- navy beans lentil
- split peas
- green lentils
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Grandma's Pasta Peas or Beans
Yield: 12
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 45 Min
This is a simple recipe using tomato sauce, peas and pasta. The recipe is hundreds of years old and was considered peasant food in Italy when Grandma was growing up. It will feed many people for very little money.
Ingredients:
- In a food processor add :
- 3 cloves of cleaned garlic
- 1/2 cup fresh celery leaves
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Puree till a fine mixture.
- In a large deep saucepan, add the above oil mixture, heat, add:
- 2 (14 to 15 oz size) cans of peas, saute peas till starting to brown.
- Add:
- 1/2 teaspoon each, parsley, basil, garlic powder, oregano
- 1 small can of tomato paste + fill can with white wine to stir out the leftover tomato paste
- 1 can of chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup of fresh whole tomatoes or fresh plum tomatoes pureed in a food processor
- Cook until sauce thickens around 1 1/2 hours on low.
- Open a 1 lb box of vermicelli or (other pasta of choice). Using half of the box, break it into bite-size pieces, taking the long pasta and snipping the ends around 1/2 in size, place in a bowl while cutting up your pasta boil according to package instructions.
Instructions:
- Drain pasta and add to the sauce mixture.
- Serve with Italian Bread.
Don't Forget to Try Our Other Favorite Recipes
15 Pasta Recipes
20 Bean Recipes
Southwest One Pan Bean Filling