Pasta e Ceci, Thickened by Its Own Chickpeas
Pasta e ceci is chickpeas and pasta cooked together in one pot until the broth turns thick and silky. It needs no stock and no cream. The body comes from the chickpeas: a third of them are crushed back into the pot, and the pasta finishes cooking in that broth instead of in a separate pot of water. The recipe starts from dried chickpeas, because the liquid they cook in is half the dish. They soak overnight and simmer on their own, and the pasta goes in for the last fifteen minutes or so. The chickpeas here are Rancho Gordo garbanzo (shop Rancho Gordo garbanzo). For what to look for in a bag, see the chickpeas and lentils guide.
Ingredients, for four
- 250 g (about 1 1/4 cups) dried chickpeas, such as Rancho Gordo garbanzo (shop Rancho Gordo garbanzo)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, for the soak
- 1 bay leaf, optional
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish, such as Capezzana (shop Capezzana)
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, such as Burlap Barrel purple stripe (shop Burlap Barrel purple stripe garlic)
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon dried, such as Burlap Barrel Limestone rosemary (shop Burlap Barrel Limestone rosemary)
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chile flakes, such as Burlap Barrel silk chili (shop Burlap Barrel silk chili flakes)
- 3 whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes from a tin, crushed by hand
- 1 teaspoon Iasa colatura (shop Iasa colatura) or 1 anchovy fillet, optional
- 200 g dried spaghetti, broken into 2 to 3 cm lengths, such as Gentile spaghetti (shop Gentile spaghetti), or any small soup pasta
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
- Grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano, to serve, optional
Method
- Soak, the night before. Put the chickpeas in a large bowl with the teaspoon of salt and cover with several inches of cold water. Soak for eight to twelve hours. If the soak will run past twelve hours, put the bowl in the fridge.
- Simmer the chickpeas. Drain and rinse them, then put them in a pot with the bay leaf and enough fresh water to cover by two inches. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer with the lid ajar. They are done when a chickpea crushes easily against the roof of the mouth, with no chalky center. That usually takes one and a half to two and a half hours. Add a good pinch of salt once they begin to soften. Keep every drop of the cooking liquid.
- Build the base. In a wide, heavy pot, warm the olive oil over medium-low heat with the garlic, rosemary and chile. Cook gently for three to four minutes, until the garlic is pale gold and fragrant, not brown. Stir in the colatura or anchovy if using, then the crushed tomatoes, and simmer for two minutes. The tomato is there to tint the broth, nothing more.
- Crush a third. Add the chickpeas and about four cups of their cooking liquid. Lift out roughly a third of the chickpeas with a little of the liquid, crush them to a rough purée with a fork, potato masher or immersion blender, and stir the purée back into the pot. Simmer for five minutes. The broth should now look cloudy and lightly thickened.
- Cook the pasta in the pot. Bring everything to a steady simmer, add the broken spaghetti and stir. Cook until tender, stirring often because the pasta sticks to the bottom. Start tasting at the box time. Whenever the pot looks tight, add hot chickpea liquid (or hot water once that runs out) a ladle at a time.
- Rest and serve. Take the pot off the heat and let it stand for two minutes, since it thickens as it rests. Taste for salt, then loosen with hot water to the texture you want. Serve in warm bowls with a thread of raw olive oil, a grind of black pepper and, if you like, grated cheese.
Soup or stew: reading the pot
| What the pot looks like | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Thin and watery, chickpeas sitting in clear broth | Too few chickpeas crushed, or too much liquid | Crush another ladle of chickpeas into the pot and simmer three minutes uncovered |
| Thick as porridge, pasta still firm | The pasta drank the broth faster than expected | Add hot liquid a ladle at a time and keep stirring. Never add cold water mid-cook |
| Chickpeas still firm after two and a half hours | Cooking time varies, and simmering takes longer at altitude | Keep simmering until one crushes easily. Next time, soak with salt, which CSU notes can shorten cooking time |
| Flat tasting | Underseasoned broth | Salt first, then a squeeze of lemon or a little more colatura at the table |
| Solid in the fridge the next day | It thickens a lot as it cools | Reheat gently with a generous splash of water, and the texture returns |
In Denver
According to Colorado State University Extension, water boils at 203°F at 5,000 feet, compared with 212°F at sea level, and simmered foods such as beans, soups and stews need more cooking time at high elevation. Liquids also evaporate faster there. For this pot, that means the chickpeas are likely to need the longer end of the simmering range, so allow the full two and a half hours on the first try. It also means keeping extra cooking liquid or hot water close by during the pasta stage, because faster evaporation can make the pot tighten sooner than a sea-level recipe expects. The rest of the adjustments are in the Denver altitude cooking guide.
Notes and variations
Why broken spaghetti. Any short pasta works. Spaghetti snapped short cooks evenly and holds up in the broth. For cooking pasta on its own, the guide to cooking dried pasta covers the basics. The quantities. USDA FoodData Central lists a cup of raw chickpeas at about 200 grams, so 250 grams is about one and a quarter cups. Making ahead. With the chickpeas cooked ahead, the dish takes about twenty-five minutes from the base to the table. Simmering beans in general is covered in the heirloom beans cooking guide. A richer pot. Render a small dice of pancetta in the oil before the garlic, and leave out the colatura.
