Pasta e Ceci Is Italian Comfort Food at its Best

There are few issues extra comforting than a steaming bowl of pasta and beans, or as I prefer to name it, a therapeutic dose of starch on starch. Pasta and chickpeas are each staples in Italian delicacies, and relying on who you ask, pasta e ceci might be known as a soup, a stew, or a pasta dish. Given how low cost and filling each substances are, it is smart that folks have been cooking them collectively, in their very own very particular means, virtually ceaselessly. Some variations are brothy like a soup, whereas others resemble noodles in chickpea–studded sauce. Typically greens play a supporting function; generally meat sneaks into the pot. You can also make it with quick tubular shapes like ditalini, damaged strands of lengthy pasta, or one of many myriad different recent or dried noodle shapes on the market.

After which there’s the chickpeas. I discovered recipes utilizing canned or cooked dried chickpeas, served complete, smashed up, blended easy, and each mixture in between. I settled on two barely totally different strategies for pasta e ceci: one for utilizing cooked dried chickpeas, and one for canned.

After simmering dried chickpeas in salted water with aromatics, the cooking liquid is flavorful and barely thick from the starchy beans—that is liquid gold and does wonders for the general creamy texture of no matter you make subsequent. I discovered mashing a number of the cooked chickpeas towards the aspect of the pot, together with the viscous cooking liquid, made a superbly thick stew-like base for the dish.

Canned chickpeas carry out surprisingly effectively on this utility and save hours of cooking time. You’ll be able to obtain an analogous substantial, creamy base (even with out the starchy cooking liquid) by mixing a small portion of the beans with some broth at the start of the one-pot meal. In the end, it’s best to be at liberty to make use of no matter you’ve gotten available.

It is vital for the chickpea-broth combination to be unfastened sufficient that the dried pasta might be cooked in the identical pot, however will not take in a lot liquid that it’s going to depart the dish wanting dry (there aren’t many conventional Italian pasta recipes which are “one-pot” offers, however pasta e ceci is certainly one of them).

As for these supporting greens, they did not find yourself making the reduce; the chickpeas themselves, together with the inventory or chickpea cooking liquid are loads flavorful sufficient that the dish would not require a lot help in that division. A spoonful of tomato paste supplies a bump of umami and imbues the in any other case monochromatic tan dish with a nice rose-colored tint.

An off-heat swirl of excellent olive oil and a sprinkle of grated Pecorino cheese rounded out the earthy taste of the chickpeas with a one-two punch of salty tang and peppery chew for a creamy, stick-to-your-ribs pasta e ceci.

March 2021