Tria e Ciceria - Chickpea Pasta

This recipe seems to go down just a treat… it is so unexpectedly good and so easy to make although you must think ahead to prepare it as the chickpeas should be soaked for at least 12 hours before. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when I first saw this dish, but when it’s made right it’s delicious. Pasta with chickpeas can be found all over puglia but this is a very traditional dish of Salento, made with the fried pieces of pasta.

Yet another meal in itself!

Ingredients
400g Taglietelle or lasagnette or maltagliate (roughly cut flat pieces of pasta)
300g Dried Chickpeas
Stick celery
Glove garlic
Bay leaf
3 Ripe Tomatoes
1 Large Onion
1 Large Carrot
Olive Oil
Salt & Ground Pepper

Method
The night before, put the dried chickpeas in to soak in water which has had a pinch of bicarbonate of soda and some sea salt added to it. Rinse very well after soaking.
Put the chickpeas into a saucepan full of salted walter and the bay leaf and simmer for at least an hour.
In the meantime, make the pasta with just flour and water (no eggs here guys and girls this is a peasant’s dish so no costly eggs!) and cut into rough pieces of flat pasta… or “maltagliate”.

Here’s Richard using a bit of elbow grease to get the pasta just so!

Then to the chickpeas add the whole clove or garlic, half an onion, a stick of celery, the tomatoes cut into four and leave to cook for another hour or more very slowly on a low heat, simmering gently. If you have a pressure cooker, you can do this far more quickly… say in 40 mins or so.
In a frying pan heat up some olive oil and fry half of the pasta. Cook the remaining pasta in lots of boiling salted water.
When the cickpeas are cooked, mix them in together with the fried pasta pieces in the large frying pan over the heat.

Add the remaining cooked pasta and mix together with a bit of the frying oil.
Serve with plenty of ground black pepper and if desired more olive oil.