Eat it eat it!!

Fagioli roasty pepper

white beans
red pepper
eggplant
fresh parsley
garlic
olive oil
vermouth/broth/water
salt, pepper, basil, etc
pasta

Cook pasta at an appropriate time; chunky pasta works best with this type of thick pasty sauce.

First, roast a red pepper: stick it under the broiler, turning every few minutes, until the skin is blackened. This should take about ten minutes at the most. Pull it out of the oven (utilizing your oven mitt technology) and put it into a container with a lid. Put on the lid and let the pepper sit for five minutes. Then unlid it and peel the loosened skin off with your hands.

While the pepper is roasting, chop up a bunch of garlic cloves and throw them into a sauté pan with some olive oil. Add any herbs or spices you want, such as basil or paprika. Cook to soften. Peel and chop up a small eggplant, or half a big one. When the pepper is done roasting, chop it too. Add them, plus a splash of vermouth, and cook for another couple minutes.

Now add a bunch of cooked white beans and a cup or two of decent broth. My beans were frozen, which was fine; the heat of the pan will melt them. If you have just boiled your beans, use the bean broth out of the pan. Otherwise, anything up to and including water will work.

At this point you are essentially making refried beans. You want the contents of the pan to turn into a thick, chunky slurry. To this end, bring the liquid to a boil and start mashing the beans with the flat of your spoon.

After ten or so minutes of simmer, the business should be ready. You can purée it if you want. Turn off the heat and tip in the drained pasta. Add a handful of chopped parsley and any grated cheese you might want. I don't know about you, but we've gradually had less and less cheese in the house over several months, so we didn't have any. Mix it all up and serve.