Pasta with String Beans & Tomatoes

Video + recipe

I love cooking vegetables along with the pasta in the same water. This method has so much going for it:

• You feel like you are getting a huge portion of pasta; in reality, you are getting a normal portion PLUS veggies.

• It’s a one-dish (well, sometimes two) meal, which means you don’t have to make a side dish, salad, or anything else to accompany it. (perfect while you’re watching Law & Order)

• There are infinite variations to play around with according to the season.

For some reason, in my years of playing around with this theme, I never thought of adding string beans and tossing them with tomato sauce. I would often do it with pesto, which is traditional in Liguria. I would also cook green beans in tomato sauce and serve them as a side dish to grilled meats.

But it never occurred to me to add pasta to the mix. It was Sophie who first enjoyed this dish down in Puglia a few years ago and has since become obsessed. So when we harvested the first green beans from the vegetable garden the other day, this seemed the perfect way to enjoy them.

Although I could have made a simple tomato sauce from scratch, I didn’t have to since I had one last bag in the freezer from last summer. I’ve included the recipe for the sauce as well. (and in case you are worried? With this last bag of sauce I have officially emptied out our freezer of last summer’s bounty.)

The video and the recipe for Pasta with String Beans and Tomato is below. Enjoy!!