Chickpea Shells with Italian Sausage

One of the many pandemic related silver linings in my world is the ability to stay in one place for a bit giving me a chance to meet some amazing farmers and food purveyors around the area. There are so many grocery stores in the area, but we also have several farmer’s markets throughout the week. My markets have had some turn over in the vegetable farmer department over the last few months, but oddly enough, I go for the meat. For all of the chicken, turkey, and pork that I eat, I turn to Kim at Lola Farms. Her products are exceptional and the flavor in the Italian sausage that they make is fantastic. They are located in Lake Butler, FL and she pasture raises heritage pork and chickens and Codee loves her….and her food. Not only do studies show a higher nutritional value in meat that comes from animals that are humanely and properly raised, they are also SO SO SO much more delicious. Kim has done all of the work for me when it comes to this meal. There as many great options out there for getting great quality, sustainable protein, but this one is my favorite by far.

I started with half a pound of Lola Farms Italian Pork Sausage that I browned in a skillet over medium high heat. Once it had some color on it, I moved it to a small bowl and then I sautéed half of a sliced white onion and a sliced orange pepper in the fat that was left in the pan. I let it cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions were soft and had a little color and the peppers were really tender, but not noodley. While that was happening, I cooked the chickpea shells in really well salted water for 7 minutes. When I drained it, I reserved a little of the cooking water even though it’s not really pasta. (Please don’t try to make it be semolina pasta. Let it be its own thing.) I returned the shells to the pot, added the cooked sausage, arugula, EVOO, salt, pepper, and the lid. The heat of the pan and the shells wilted the arugula perfectly while I finished the veggies. To the skillet, I added 2TBSP tomato paste and cooked it for a minute before deglazing the pan with some of the cooking water. Once everything was mixed together, I added the veggies to the pot and stirred everything together on the still warm burner. I left the lid to the on the counter and then I tasted it and the lid went in the dishwasher and everything went on the plate. The no-secret secret to this dish is the sausage. 🙂

Eat the rainbow, y’all!