Instructions: This pasta dish doesnt have a name. My mother-in-law invented it, and my partner refined it some. We usually call it "that pasta dish" (g). Below is how I wrote it up for my mother awhile back. Sadly, sweet peppers wont be in season for any of us for awhile still.

This is
*very* low-fat, by the way, if you leave off the pine nuts. It probably qualifies as "California cuisine". Its certainly vegetarian, and can be vegan if you leave off the cheese.

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Delicious pasta dish, a la Robin & Selena Wells

Toast pine nuts until golden brown. You can put them dry into a toaster oven, or toast them in a dry skillet or saute them in butter or olive oil.

If you do them dry, watch them! They will do nothing and be boring for a long time, and then suddenly start to brown. They will burn easily at that point. If you toast them in oil or butter, they dont burn as easily. (A cup at least, but everyone will want extra, and a lot get nibbled while youre cooking.)

Cook pasta.

Cut red and yellow bell peppers into chunks. (1/2 inch squares.)

Chunk red onion, match size of peppers.

Saute in olive oil: first the onion until almost cooked, then add peppers and raisins and cook until onions are limp.

Toss with pasta. Top each serving with pine nuts.

Variations: you can top with grated parmesan/asiago/romano cheese if you like. You can add fresh green peas to the end of the saute stage if theyre in season and sweet. The color is really nice. Barely cook them at all.

All quantities of veggies to taste, of course.

There may be enough oil from the saute to moisten the whole dish sufficiently. If not, drizzle the finished dish with just a little more oil.

This is so delicious you will go crazy.

[1] Shells or "ears" are best. Curlies work okay. Long&skinny like spaghetti or linguini works poorest because it doesnt catch the bits.

[2] Green bell peppers are not-fully-ripe peppers of various colors. Yellow peppers are often more-ripe, but still not-fully-ripe peppers. True yellow peppers, when ripe, have a delicious flavor. Its better to leave them out than to use unripe red peppers (which turn yellow first, so they can fool you).

[3] Pine nuts are also called pignolas.

[4] Because this dish is so simple, it really matters what you use. Its better to leave something out than to substitute for it. In other words, dont use yellow onions, dont use green peppers. That said, I can tell you that Ive done this with a zillion variations of the "whats in the fridge"

variety, and its always good. This is just the ultimate version.

[5] When I wrote this up, I was cutting things into chunks. Nowadays, I tend to cut things into strips. I suspect they "catch" in the pasta better that way. Ill have to try it both ways again soon (g).

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