In our house, chickpea sauce has become a must as a sauce for polenta, starting from an evening last year when we went to dine at our friends Lucia and Cesare’s house.
It was one of those dinners that happens among friends, I imagine to you too, where everyone brings something, one of those evenings where I-have-a-bit-of-this and you-have-a-bit-of-that, and where in the end we eat much better than expected at the beginning.
So. That evening Lucia (yes, the Lucia) tells me on the phone that in addition, just in case what we have isn’t enough, she also has “some leftover polenta that maybe we can sauté in the pan.” And I throw in a “I have a chickpea sauce, I’ll bring that.” But actually, I had never tried polenta with chickpeas before and I was, I must say, a bit hesitant that my chickpea sauce, quite spicy, could “go well” with polenta. But that’s what I had, and that’s what I brought.
Long story short, this spicy chickpea sauce without salt turned out to be its death, the trump card, the non plus ultra, well, you get the point, and with Lucia’s polenta, it gave its best. And if there had been twice as much polenta and chickpea sauce, we would surely have cleaned all the plates anyway!
And so, after that evening, I made polenta with chickpea sauce (spicy) often, since these two kids who are averse to vegetables at least eat legumes with pleasure.
And the other day, when I made the polenta taragna with mushrooms (mushrooms! yikes!!) I also made a nice pot of chickpea sauce just for them.
And obviously now I’ll give you the recipe. 🙂
I dedicated this recipe to the chickpea sauce – instead of titling it polenta with chickpea sauce as the pictures suggest – because I decided to make the sauce the star: a simple chickpea sauce, which I make like this, with rosemary and rustic tomato puree, and which I’ve been making like this forever, long before discovering that we really like pairing it with polenta.
If this combination is new to you too and you’re hesitating 🙂 or if you don’t have time or desire to cook polenta, you can use it, it seems obvious to say, but I’ll say it, to season pasta (we like it with rigatoni, with mixed pasta, and with thick spaghetti).
Or… on certain cold, snowy, rainy, icy days… scooped up with a slice of good homemade bread, this chickpea sauce can also become a second course, one of those to dip into. With a glass of red wine beside it. 🙂
(Then, for other ideas with polenta, look here too: 👇)
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very affordable
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 2
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 16 oz chickpeas (cooked)
- 14 oz tomato puree
- Half onion
- 1 twig rosemary
- 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- chili pepper (to taste)
Tools
- Casserole with lid
Steps
For the polenta I refer you to the previous recipe.
A couple of notes:
– polenta taragna is trending in my house at the moment (until I finish the stock bought in the mountains), but you can comfortably use the traditional corn-only polenta
– adding butter is optional, but with taragna I think it’s worth adding, something I never do with yellow polenta
– cheese is usually added in taragna, but for this version topped with chickpeas I preferred only butter.
Well, polenta or pasta that you have decided to make, now let’s proceed to the preparation of the chickpea sauce, which is really simple, a basic recipe, I would say:
Chop the onion and let it soften in a pan with oil and rosemary. The chili pepper can be added now.
Add the chickpeas (I remind you that these are cooked chickpeas) (*)
Let them flavor for a few minutes then pour the tomato puree. If it’s too thick, you can soften it with a bit of water (but a bit of water is always added, right? You do too, right, use a couple of fingers of water to get all that stubborn puree out of the bottom of the bottle? 😀 )
Cook with the lid semi-closed and on low heat for about 30 minutes.
During cooking, depending on the consistency of the puree, check if it’s necessary to add a few more tablespoons of water.
At the end of cooking and depending on the type of pasta (or polenta) used, you can adjust the oil if necessary.
The final consistency of the sauce should be as you see in the photo, it should be thick.
Enjoy your meal!!
(*) The day before I cooked – in water with celery, carrot, and onion for about 3 hours – a bag of dried chickpeas, which I then used in various ways: besides making this sauce, part of it I used for a soup similar to this bean one (with the blended cooking vegetables) and the remaining I turned into hummus like this. I remind you that before cooking, you need to soak the chickpeas for 24 hours (the classic overnight soak is too short for me).
Alternatively, you can use canned chickpeas, a valid alternative if you have little time to cook or if you didn’t remember to soak the chickpeas, but if you are following a low-sodium diet… you already know it’s best to avoid canned legumes. 😉We like this sauce spicy, but if you can’t or don’t want to eat spicy, it’s great even without chili pepper. In this case, to add flavor instead of salt, try adding other aromatic herbs, like marjoram and thyme, and possibly a finely chopped garlic clove.
Salt-Free Advice
I remind you that I cook without added salt. If you don’t know yet, I invite you to read my article –> Cooking without salt, my journey. 🙂
If you’re interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
– Decrease salt gradually, the palate must get used to it slowly and should not notice the progressive reduction.
– Use spices. Chili pepper, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
– Use aromatic herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
– Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
– Use spicy vegetables or fruits. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
– Use my salt-free vegetable granule and gomasio.
– Prefer fresh foods.
– Avoid cooking in water, prefer cooking methods that don’t disperse flavors (grill, en papillote, steam, microwave)
– Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
– Occasionally allow yourself a break from the rule. It’s good for the mood and helps to persevere.
If you don’t want or can’t give up salt:
You can still try my recipes salting according to your habits.
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