Pasta with chickpeas
Serves four
½ pound (200 g) dry chickpeas (or a 450 g can), soaked overnight
2 cloves of garlic
125 g of pasta (ditalini or similar)
½ medium onion
Sprig of rosemary
2/5 cup (100 ml) olive oil
½ cup (6 tablespoons) chopped tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
The night before you make the soup, rinse the chickpeas well, remove any stones you may find and cover them in abundant cold water to soak.
The next day, fill a pot with cold water. Salt it with about a tablespoon of coarse sea salt (Kosher is fine), add an unpeeled glove of garlic (it will be too strong otherwise) and the chickpeas. Simmer until chickpeas are tender (from one to three hours depending on tenderness).
While the chickpeas are simmering, dice the onion. Crush the second clove of garlic with the flat edge of the knife.
Sautee the onion along with the ‘battuto’ (mixture of chopped herbs) in about ¾ of the olive oil over a fairly brisk flame. Season with salt and pepper. Keep an eye on the mixture, stirring occasionally until the onion becomes translucent and begins to brown. Do not let them over cook.
Tomato is optional in Tuscan pasta e ceci. Then put them into a pot with some rosemary. You may want to add hot pepper flakes, but Tuscans generally do not.
When the chickpeas are done, transfer them to the tomato pot with a slotted spoon, and then add the water they were cooked in (if there is not enough salted water, add fresh water, but not broth or bouillon which is too strong). Simmer, stirring occasionally for another 10 minutes.
While the chickpeas are simmering, strip the remaining leaves from the sprig of rosemary and mince them finely.
Get a large non-stick pot. Mill the chickpeas into a bowl then put them back in the pot. At this stage you can blend the soup with a hand blender to give it a creamier texture.
Put the soup back on the burner and continue to let it simmer.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a small non-stick pan and add minced rosemary leaves, which will infuse the oil. Stir infused oil into the soup.
Add the pasta, stirring often. Pasta tends to stick to the bottom of the pot and burn when added to a thick soup. Using a non-stick pot will reduce (but not eliminate) the danger of burning.
If the soup looks like it is becoming too thick, add a little boiling water.
After the pastahas cooked, ladle into bowls. Drizzle with olive oil.
