CEiMB - Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic and White Beans

Bri over at Yoshimi vs Motherhood chose this wonderful and healthy Ellie Krieger's recipe for penne pasta using fresh tomatoes, garlic and cannellini white beans for our recipe challenge this week.   We grilled some chicken to accompany the pasta and it was delicious.  I did not have fresh basil so I used some italian herb blend.  I did not have fresh grated parmesan because unbeknownst to me, Chandler had eaten it all, so it has regular parmesan on top.  Thank you Bri for a delicious pick this week!  I just love Ellie's recipes.

Just a little ranting on the side here about a non-food subject.  So. . . I took a western shirt to the dry cleaners.  Don't ask why I have a western shirt.  It's not important.  When I picked it up, they had charged me $8 for cleaning it.  I asked to speak to the manager and asked why that shirt was $8 and the rest of the shirts were $2.50.  He said because it had "special pearl buttons" on it and they did not want to ruin the buttons.  I told him K-Mart must not have thought they were so "special"  because the shirt only cost $4.  I have issues with dry cleaners.  You might as well know that.   Don't you just hate paying more for cleaning than the garment cost in the first place?

I hope all of you beautiful people have a safe and happy 4th of July!  We will be grilling out at the lake and enjoying hopefully beautiful weather all weekend.  I'm planning to cook up some barbeque hamburgers stuffed with mushrooms and vidalia onions.

Try this pasta.

3 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1(15 ounce) can cannellini beans
1/2 pound penne pasta
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Slice each tomato into 8 wedges and discard the seeds. Put the tomato wedges and garlic into a 9 by 13-inch roasting pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and a few turns of pepper. Roast in the oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.
Drain the beans into a large colander in the sink. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta into the colander containing the beans, so the hot pasta water will warm the beans. Return drained pasta and beans to the pasta pot.
When the tomatoes are done, pick out the garlic cloves, squeeze the garlic out of the skin into a small bowl and mash with a fork. Pour the roasted tomatoes into the pasta pot, add the garlic, the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the basil and additional salt and pepper, to taste. Toss to combine. Serve topped with the Parmesan.