Pasta and chickpeas is one of the most beloved dishes of Italian tradition, a symbol of simplicity. Made with a few genuine ingredients — chickpeas, pasta, garlic, rosemary, and extra virgin olive oil — each spoonful contains all the flavor of rustic, countryside cuisine. It’s a heartwarming, nutritious, and comforting dish, perfect on cold days but delicious in any season. Every family has its version, more soupy or thicker, but the result is always the same: a dish that smells of memories and tradition.
Every dish tells a story… and there are many more to discover:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 10 oz mixed pasta
- 7 oz dried chickpeas
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 sprig rosemary
- to taste salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 6 cups water
- 1 clove garlic
Steps
To prepare pasta and chickpeas, rinse the chickpeas well, remove any damaged or dark ones, and soak them in a large bowl with plenty of cold water for at least 12 hours (or more, if needed).
After soaking, rinse the chickpeas again and transfer them to a pot. Add about 6 cups of water, the garlic clove, and the rosemary sprig, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to the minimum, cover with a lid, and let simmer for about an hour. Add salt only at the end of cooking to prevent the chickpeas from hardening.
Meanwhile, wash the carrot, peel it, and finely chop it. Do the same with the onion after peeling it, and with the celery stalk, washed and stripped of strings, then chop these too.
Place a large pot on the stove and pour in 3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add the onion, celery, and carrot mince, and sauté over low heat until lightly golden. At this point, add the tomato sauce, a generous pinch of salt, cover with a lid, and let cook for about 10-15 minutes.
When the chickpeas are cooked, drain them, keeping their cooking water aside. Pour half of this water into the pot where the tomato sauce is cooking, bring to a boil, and add the pasta. If during cooking the liquid dries out too much, add a ladle of chickpea cooking water. Halfway through the pasta cooking time, add the previously drained chickpeas.
Your pasta and chickpeas are ready: simple, fragrant, and full of flavor. Enjoy your meal!
Tips
If you don’t have dried chickpeas, canned precooked ones are fine too. In this case, without the chickpea cooking water, you can add water or vegetable broth to the tomato sauce to cook the pasta
