Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with Chickpeas)

Pasta e ceci1
I’m not quite sure if this one’s a soup or a pasta dish. All I know is that it made for a very delicious and satisfying meal. It’s great on a cold (or any other) day and works for lunch or dinner.
I found the recipe
here and came up with this after tweaking the original a bit.

Ingredients:
(For approximately 3 servings)
¾ cup of any kind of small pasta (I used pipette), cooked till almost al dente
1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ can of stewed tomatoes (the one I used had small amounts of onion, celery & green pepper too)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ onion, finely chopped
¾ tsp dried rosemary
Red pepper flakes
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil
1-2 cups water (I used the pasta water)

Method:
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add chopped onion and crushed garlic followed by salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and crushed rosemary. Cook until the onions turn soft and translucent.

Add the canned tomatoes, breaking up the large pieces with the back of a big spoon.

Add half the chickpeas. Cook for a few minutes. Blend everything in the saucepan together. Add some water if it's too thick. I used my handheld immersion blender here but a regular blender is fine too- it's just that it's a pain to have to wait for the whole thing to cool a bit, then transfer to the blender and then back again to the saucepan.

Simmer, stirring occasionally. The pureed chickpeas give the soup a very thick and creamy texture. Add the remaining chickpeas. Cook for a few minutes. Adjust salt and pepper as required.

Add the cooked pasta and cook for a minute or two for all the flavors to come together. The longer the soup sits, the thicker it gets. Serve hot.

I’m sending this across to Vaishali for It’s A Vegan World: Italian.
This also goes to Susan for the eighth edition of My Legume Love Affair.

Pasta e ceci3

Buon appetito!

36 Burps:

Unknown said...

Chickpeas and pasta looks great together, very wholesome meal. Pics looks lovely TBC.

sra said...

It's a pasta stew ;-)

Namratha said...

I was going to make Rachel's version of the same dish last week, but decided to do something else instead. This looks good!

Anonymous said...

This looks so hearty and complete! I am sure it tasted as good as it looks.

Raks said...

Looks so tangy TBC! I have not tried anything like this before using pasta,love to try it!

Chutneytales said...

Hi thanks for visiting my blog ..
Chickpeas with pasta..it looks excellent.Love the bowl :)

A_and_N said...

Oh this is awesome! A loves pasta and I love chickpeas :) I should try this for a weeknight dinner.

MR said...

that;s an interesting combo
and very filling too
good recipe

Vibaas said...

Very different and sounds so yummy!

Unknown said...

Yum!

Unknown said...

great pic TBC, pasta looks so tempting!!

Unknown said...

great pic TBC, pasta looks so tempting!!

Vrinda said...

I am not a pasta fan but lov chickpeas,i think it would be perfect for tea time snack...

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely going to try this TBC. I'm always looking for simple pasta meals without cheese. I have idli batter for 2 days. So this is for Thursday's dinner. I have fire roasted tomatoes, I'll use it instead of the stewed tomatoes.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Two of my favourites, pasta and chickpeas. What's not like here? Doesn't matter if it pasta or soup!

Laavanya said...

You are a big chickpea fan aren't ya? That looks so beautiful and am sure it's so tomatoey & tasty.

Sakshi said...

TBC you are really awesome bcoz I think you are the sole person who went through my entire blog...gosh you even read my copyright notice...luv ya gal..do me a favor will ya? add me to ur blog list, bookmark me, put me up on ur desktop, if you have an ipod even put my blog in there..ok? After seeing all you food bloggers blog am at the verge of loosing my mind...are you guys for real?? You post at the rate of the second hand clicking on a clock.
This dish looks really yummy and the most important thing is that it seems very quick to cook. I love it when I don't have to spend an entire day cutting veggies...sobs!! and yet get all those lovely herb flavors...can see that its sure gonna be a winner!!!

Anonymous said...

We make pasta soup with chickpeas but not pasta like yours. Looks so good! I love chickpeas a lot:)

Varsha Vipins said...

I'll call this a curry definitely..that too divine one..My..am drooling..slurpp..:)
Loved ur blog so much TBC..:)

veggie belly said...

id say this is a soupy pasta! sounds filling and yummy.

Anonymous said...

hi there TBC . im new to your space and in general new to blogspot. I hopped on to your space from Nupurs one hot stove.....and i love the pictures you have here......I aint a great fan of pasta but combined with chickpeas i might just give it a try..........

AnuSriram said...

Wow.. that looks wonderful.. I'm a fan of pasta and chickpeas but never ever thought of combining them both.. Have bookmarked to try!

SMN said...

Very interesting combo and yummy too :)

Rajitha said...

that pasta looks great...but i cannot imagine pairing chickpeas with pasta..love chickpeas waaay too much!! how are you doing?? gotta touch base soon.....

TBC said...


Madhu, Homecooked, MR, Vibaas and Anoop H- thank you. :-)

Sra- yeah, you could call it that too, I guess. :D

Namratha- Rachel as in Rachel Ray? Yeah, don’t do that.. .go for this one… you get a good recipe without that annoying voice. ;-)

Rak’s kitchen- please do! I hope you like it.:D

Madhumathi- thanks for visiting! : D

A & N- then go for it! It makes for a filling meal. :-)

Maria- welcome and thanks! :-)

Vrinda- It would be a little too heavy for a snack, I think, but whatever works for ya! :D

Madhuram- so did ya get a chance to try it on Thursay? Fire-roasted tomatoes sound like a great substitution.

Aprana- That’s what I say too.:D What’s in a name anyway, eh? :)

Laavanya- actually, not so much, but I have been using it so much lately that I can see why you’d think that. I had 4-5 cans of chickpeas that had been lying around for such a long time now. I also made hummus.:D

Sakshi- it’s nice to see you here. Actually, I didn’t go thro’ your whole blog… just scrolled down to the end of a page and saw the notice.:D But I’ll be stopping by every now and then to see what you’re up to. :D
I know, there are so many food bloggers who do so much that it sometimes makes me wonder...hmmm ;-) I’m not even half as remotely prolific as most of them out there. I just do my thing when I can. :D

Farida- I do that too sometimes- make a soup and add some pasta to it to make it more substantial. :D

Varsha- welcome, and thanks for stopping by! Glad you like my blog. :)

Veggie belly- thanks! :)

Luckysanjana- thank you for the sweet comment.:)
I hope you come back when you can.
Welcome to the big bad world of food blogging! ;-)

Anu- I would never have thought of pairing pasta and chickpeas together had it not been for the recipe I came across. :D

SMN- thank you. :D

Rajitha- how have you been? You have my number, so what’s stopping ya? ;-)
What are u doing these days?
Have you abandoned your blog? :D


Ranjani said...

that's a great looking pasta and I like the addition of chickpeas..little extra protein never hurt anyone!

Btw...new idea is up, I thought you'd be interested..!

Susan said...

Aside from the great flavor, chickpeas are such an adaptable ingredient to many different recipes.

Thanks, TBC, for sharing this dish of delicious Italian flair!

The MLLA8 round-up will be online in a few more days.

Cynthia said...

I have never seen pasta and chick peas look so deliciously enticing before.

test it comm said...

I like the sound of a chickpea pasta

katrina said...

wow i just loved your blog .your passion is same as mine-will bookmark your blog for future references too. even i have a blog on recipes,have a look you may love exploring it.my blog: http://bestrecipesguide.blogspot.com keep the gr8 work going on

Daniel said...

This recipe is an absolute keeper! Particularly the fact that it's so inexpensive. I bet you could make this entire dish for under $5.00--that's laughably cheap! And to think that people claim it's too expensive to cook at home.

Dan
Casual Kitchen

TBC said...

Cynthia, Kevin, Katrina & Daniel- thank you for your comments.

Dazy said...

I'm making this tonight. I think I'll try to shoot it, but I don't think it will be as pretty as your picture!

TBC said...

Dazy: thank you for stopping by. I hope you've had a chance to try it out. How did you like it?
I'm heading over to your place now...:D

Anonymous said...

mmmm... cant wait to try this recipe - your pictures make it look even better ;)...great blog! Have a feeling I'll be trying alot of recipes here ;)

TBC said...




Kylee- you're so sweet! :) Thank you. Let me know how this turns out for you, ok?

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