Penne Pasta with Cabbage and Mushrooms

This is another dish from Stephen Satterfield's Root to Leaf: A Southern Chef Cooks through the Seasons. I've prepared this pasta dish three times. While I've remained faithful to central elements of the recipe (the butter, mushrooms, shallot, onion, cabbage, and a smidgen of cream), I've used different pastas each time I prepared the dish. The original recipe calls for buckwheat penne, but I've yet to find it in stock anywhere. I've used regular penne, whole wheat penne, and most recently chickpea shells. My personal favorite is the chickpea incarnation. A friend recommended bean-flour pasta as a way to amp up protein and that's exactly the benefit gained from the latest version (pictured above). Nutritionally, the chickpea pasta packed more than twice the protein and a little less overall carbs than when prepared with whole wheat penne: ~ 260 calories, ~9 grams fat, ~ 37 carbs, 2 sugars, ~ 14 grams protein, ~ 10 grams fiber.