Summer Pasta with Tomatoes and Chickpeas

Quick, easy, and very seasonal.

A raw tomato sauces is prepared first by chopping tomatoes, basil, and garlic, and adding balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and then letting it sit at least 30 minutes. This mixture smelled heavenly. You then add chickpeas (a can is OK, I used freshly prepared).

The recipe specifies fusilli or farfalle pasta. I used what I had on hand - a combination of ziti and elbow macaroni, and it worked fine.

You simply cook the pasta, then toss with the raw "sauce", and add some cheese (Parmesan or feta, we used Parmesan).

With great tomatoes available, this is a good dish to make now (summer). We doubled or tripled the basil, because its exploding in my garden.

Kids didn't care for the chickpeas, but by including them this dish makes for a nutritionally complete dinner. Personally, I just loved them.