Penne al Nissa

I apologize for the significant slow in posts. I have had so much work for school lately, I haven't even been cooking a lot, much less blog about it! While I'm cooking less often, I am also cooking smarter. That means meals go for more than one night, and they take less time/effort to prepare. This recipe is inspired by two really great Italian dishes. One is a version of Pasta al Amatriciana that I had in the North End when we were visiting Boston for the first time for the apartment hunt. The other dish is my Aunt Lorraine's Pasta e Fagioli. I sort of amalgamated the two into something super quick, tasty, and inexpensive. Seriously, this took me 20 minutes start to finish. It's almost a non-recipe. Any way. I experimented, I liked it, and I'm sharing it with you.

Penne al Nissa

1 box penne

1 tsp olive oil

1 medium onion

4 oz cubed pancetta (or smoked bacon)

1- 15 oz can cannellini beans, drained

Red pepper flakes to taste

1-18 oz jar marinara sauce

I'll just say to cook your pasta according to the package directions, and just do it as you go. Put your water on to boil, add pasta, drain and return to the pot. This can all be done simultaneously as you build your sauce.

For the sauce, use a large sauce pan, and put your oil over medium heat. Very coarsely chop the onion. Add the onion. After 2 minutes add the pancetta. Once the onion is translucent, add the beans and red paper flakes. You'll want to add the pepper flakes liberally since the amatriciana is spicy. Cook for 2 minutes more. Then add the sauce and heat until warmed through. Add the sauce to your drained pasta in the pot.

Seriously. 20 minutes. Including water boiling and chopping time. If you wanted to make this into a soup, you could use a shorter pasta like macaroni, and add 2 cups of chicken broth to the sauce. (Still cook and keep your noodles separate to prevent the pasta from soaking up the broth and making mush.)

Since this dish is named after moi, I'll fit the theme by putting up something that is currently getting heavy rotation.