Chickpea pasta (Ciceri e tria)
A classic comforting pasta dish, perfect for warming up on a winter’s night.
For this recipe you will need a food processor, a blender and a pasta machine.
Ingredients
For the chickpea sauce
- 250g/9oz chickpeas soaked overnight in plenty of cold water and drained
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- ½ leek, cut into chunks
- ½ stick celery, cut into chunks
- ½ red onion, cut into chunks
- 2 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 dried red chilli
- 1 sprig rosemary
For the pasta
- 200g/7oz fine semolina flour, plus extra for rolling
- 100g/3½oz 00 pasta flour
- 150ml/5fl oz olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 red chilli
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Method
Put the chickpeas, garlic, leek, celery, onion, cherry tomatoes, dried chilli and rosemary in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour, or until the chickpeas are tender.
Meanwhile, to make the pasta, tip the semolina, flour and a pinch of salt into a food processor and blend while slowly adding up to 150ml/5fl oz water until you have a soft dough.
Knead the dough lightly then divide into four balls and pass each piece through a pasta machine slowly, changing the setting until it gets to number six. Cut each strip into 10cm/4in lengths about 2cm/1in thick, then toss in semolina flour and set aside on a tray.
Preheat a sandwich maker to high. One at a time, put the broccoli, leek and kale into the sandwich maker and char. Once all the vegetables are cooked, transfer to a bowl, add the oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
To make the sauce, remove the garlic, leeks, celery, onions, tomatoes and chilli from the chickpea pan and blend with 100ml/3½fl oz of the cooking water to a smooth paste. Drain the chickpeas and coat in the sauce.
Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan and fry the garlic, rosemary and chilli until the garlic turns golden-brown. Remove from the pan, tip in a third of the pasta strips and fry until crisp and golden-brown. Drain on kitchen paper.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the rest of the pasta for 3–5 minutes, or until al dente. Drain and stir through the chickpea sauce. Season with salt and pepper and stir through some extra virgin olive oil, the parsley and half the fried pasta. Transfer to a serving dish and top with the remaining fried pasta. Serve with the chargrilled vegetables.
