Pasta e ceci — pasta with chickpeas, garlic and rosemary
The Roman minestra thick enough to eat with a fork: chickpeas soaked overnight and simmered with garlic, bay and rosemary, with a third mashed to thicken the broth. Tomato purée is cooked until fragrant, then ditalini simmer in the chickpea broth until creamy, finished with olive oil and peperoncino.
Ingredients for two
| 480 g | Tinned chickpeas (400 g tin) 2 x 400 g tins, drained and rinsed; a little more chickpea than in the dried version, welcome as they provide the protein |
| 160 g | Ditalini (small tubular soup pasta) 80 g per person: chickpeas already provide starch, and in Rome the dish has more chickpeas than pasta; alternatively, use spaghetti broken into 2 cm lengths |
| 700 g | Water hot, from the kettle |
| 15 g | Garlic 3 cloves, all finely sliced |
| 5 g | Fresh rosemary 1 sprig, leaves stripped and chopped |
| 1 g | Dried bay leaves 2 leaves |
| 50 g | Extra virgin olive oil 5 tbsp: 2 for cooking and 3 to drizzle over before serving |
| 20 g | Double-concentrated tomato purée 1 tbsp |
| 2 g | Chilli flakes (peperoncino) 1 tsp: half for cooking and the rest to serve, for those who like it |
| 3 g | Fine salt 1/2 tsp; the stock cube already contains salt |
| 1 g | Black peppercorns a few turns of the pepper mill to serve |
| 10 g | Vegetable stock cubes 1 cube, to replace the dried chickpea broth |
Method
- Heat 700 g water in a kettle. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Set aside a third (160 g) and roughly mash with a fork or hand blender and 100 g of the hot water. Finely slice all 3 garlic cloves, and strip and chop the rosemary leaves.
- In a wide, 28 cm sauté pan, heat 20 g olive oil over a medium-low heat with the garlic, chopped rosemary and half the chilli flakes (1/2 tsp) for 2 minutes, until the garlic is pale golden and the rosemary sizzles. Add the tomato purée and cook, stirring, for 1–2 minutes until darker and glossy.
- Add the chickpea purée, then the whole chickpeas, remaining 600 g hot water, crumbled stock cube, bay leaves and 3 g salt. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes so the chickpeas absorb the garlic and rosemary flavours.
- Add the ditalini and cook over a medium heat for 1–2 minutes longer than the packet instructions, about 11–13 minutes: pasta cooks more slowly in a thick broth than in plenty of water. Taste and stir often, adding hot water 100 g at a time if it thickens too quickly. It is ready when the pasta is tender and the broth forms a thick cream coating everything, with a spoon leaving a trail that slowly closes.
- Remove the bay leaves, turn off the heat and cover for 3 minutes. Check the salt. Serve in deep plates with 15 g olive oil drizzled over each, freshly ground pepper and a pinch of the remaining chilli for those who like it.
A 35-minute weeknight version: tinned chickpeas work very well here, with a stock cube replacing the dried chickpea broth. Two drained tins give a little more chickpea than the dried version, 480 g rather than 370 g, which is welcome as they provide the protein. The flavour is slightly less deep, but still delicious.
Lighter version
- Ditalini (small tubular soup pasta) : 120 g
- Extra virgin olive oil : 30 g
In step 4, heat 10 g olive oil (1 tbsp) instead of 20 g.
In step 5, add about 360 g broth, three times the weight of the 120 g pasta, or about 3 1/2 ladlefuls, instead of 500 g. Loosen with hot water if needed.
In step 6, drizzle each plate with 10 g olive oil (1 tbsp) instead of 15 g.
Use 60 g pasta per person and 3 tbsp oil: 1 for cooking and 2 to finish. Keep all the chickpeas, as they provide the protein.
On your plate
Recipe
786 kcal · protein 27 g · carbs 95 g · fat 32 g
Quantities per person
- 80 g Dried chickpeas
- 2.5 g Bicarbonate of soda
- 80 g Ditalini (small tubular soup pasta)
- 600 g Water
- 7.5 g Garlic
- 2.5 g Fresh rosemary
- 0.5 g Dried bay leaves
- 25 g Celery
- 25 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 10 g Double-concentrated tomato purée
- 1 g Chilli flakes (peperoncino)
- 4 g Fine salt
- 0.5 g Black peppercorns
Cooking tips
Starting the overnight soak takes just 1 minute. You can also cook the chickpeas the evening before or in the morning and refrigerate in their broth, leaving less than 30 minutes to do at dinner time. Leftovers thicken considerably in the fridge; reheat gently with 100 g water and a drizzle of oil, and they taste even better. Cook double the chickpeas and use the extra for hummus or a salad the next day. For a redder version, common in Roman homes, add 150 g crushed peeled tomatoes with the broth in step 5. For a Neapolitan version, replace the ditalini with pasta mista, a mixture of packet ends or broken spaghetti and penne, often omitting the tomato purée, and cook in the broth in the same way.
A meatless Friday minestra from Rome and Lazio. The classic Roman version melts an anchovy fillet into the oil with the garlic and rosemary. It is omitted here to keep the dish fish-free: an anchovy dissolved in the base cannot be separated out for the fish-free plate. Anchovies are pareve; this omission is not a kashrut requirement. Browning the tomato purée and blending the cooked garlic into the chickpea purée provide depth instead.
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