Pasta with Chickpeas – Pasta e Ceci

Goodness! This is an easy, nutritious and tasty pasta dish.  ‘Pasta e Ceci‘ is an Italian pasta and chickpeas soup. A great vegetarian dish is you use vegetable stock instead of the chicken stock.

Are you ever alone and want to whip a meal just for yourself? No body wants to spend too much time in the kitchen if they are cooking for themselves – right? This is one of those perfect ‘Lonely day’ recipes.

It takes just ten minutes and okay  a few extra minutes to ensure the pasta is cooked. But hey you get the idea!

I like to cook down the soup so that it’s a creamy yummy pasta dish and not really a soup. My kids love it too. But please please serve it hot!!

Pasta with Chickpeas – Pasta e Ceci

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked the next day with a little salt OR use a can of chickpeas
• 2 – 2 ¼ cups ‘fusilli’ pasta pasta
• 1 Vidalia (yellow) onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp finely grated Pamesan Cheese ‘ Parmigiano-Reggiano’
• 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• ¼ tsp dried thyme
• 3 cups concentrated chicken stock  / or use 2 chicken bouillon cubes + 3 cups water (You can substitute this for salted vegetable stock instead).

Method:

• Chop up the ingredients.
• 
• Heat butter and olive oil in a non stick pot till butter is melted.
• Add the chopped ingredients and saute till the onion is softened and light golden.
• 
• Drain the chickpeas and reserve the can juices.
• 
• Add the chickpeas reserving 2 -3 Tbsp to add later.
• Mash the chick peas well along with the sautéed ingredients.
• 
• Add the remaining juices from the can as well as chicken or vegetable stock – around 3 ½ cups in all.
• Bring to a simmer.
• 
• Add the pasta (fusilli) and cover the pot.
• 

• Cook on low till the pasta is cooked and the soup has mostly reduced.
• 
• Add the Finely grated parmesan cheese.
• 
• Add the fresh chopped parsley and dried thyme.
• Also add the reserved chick peas. Remove from heat. Stir and cover for 5 minutes. Serve hot while pasta is still smooth and creamy.
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Pasta with Chickpeas – Pasta e Ceci

Try it and let us know – Pasta with Chickpeas – Pasta e Ceci.