Today quick and delicious pasta and chickpeas in a pan. In Calabria, this dish is known as lagane and chickpeas, and it is a traditional dish of Calabrian cuisine, prepared on special occasions such as St. Martin’s Day and also St. Joseph’s Day. On these special days, even the poor could satisfy their hunger with this food, receiving a plate of this tasty soup. Over time, this tradition has given rise to folkloric festivals, with drum music, where participants can enjoy pasta and chickpeas prepared traditionally, with chickpeas cooked in a clay pot over the fire, and then the pasta is strictly homemade, with flour, semolina, and water, cooked quickly and mixed with cooked chickpeas. Today, I leave you with the quick recipe to prepare an even more delicious dish, but of course, I also leave you the various references if you want to do everything at home. For the recipe, we usually use short-cut tagliatelle (in dialect lagane) or maltagliati, which resemble more the Campanian lagane, but nowadays small ready-made pasta is frequently used. For the recipe, I used my dry chickpeas, soaked and cooked in a clay pot, alternatively, they can be cooked in a pressure cooker or a regular pot. I had frozen them to have them readily available whenever I wanted, but if you don’t have time to cook them at home, you can also use ready-made ones. Here are the details for cooking chickpeas and some recipes I adore with chickpeas or chickpea flour.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 2
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: St. Joseph's Day, All seasons
Ingredients for Quick Pasta and Chickpeas in a Pan
- 14.1 oz pre-cooked chickpeas
- 5.6 oz fettuccine or tagliatelle (egg-free)
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 chili pepper
- 2 leaves bay leaves
- to taste wild fennel seeds
- to taste olive oil
- to taste salt
Tools
- 1 Pan
- 1 Immersion Blender
Steps for Preparing Quick Pasta and Chickpeas
Place minced garlic and chili pepper in the pan with oil, sauté and then add the drained pre-cooked chickpeas.
Let the chickpeas absorb some flavor for a few minutes, then add about 4 cups of water, put in 2 bay leaves, and a few wild fennel seeds, which add flavor and aid in the digestion of legumes.
Bring to a boil, let it simmer for a few minutes, then add a little salt and the tomato paste.
After about 5 minutes, remove the bay leaves. Blend a little with the immersion blender, but do not overdo it, just enough to create a little creaminess.
Break the dried egg-free tagliatelle into small pieces in your hands to create maltagliati, cook in the chickpea water, keeping the lid on and cooking over medium heat all the time. At the end, when the pasta is al dente, turn off the heat and let it rest for two minutes. During the rest, the pasta will absorb all the cooking water and will form a creamy and delicious soup, ready to be served.
If you want to make the pasta at home, simply mix 2 parts of all-purpose flour and semolina with one part of warm water. Once you obtain a nice elastic dough, roll it out thin and cut into small pieces. In this case, it is preferable to quickly boil the pasta separately.
