Pasta e Ceci - Pasta with Chickpeas

Pasta e Ceci is one of my favourite vegan pasta recipes. This Italian classic comes from la cucina povera which means all you need are a few simple ingredients to make this super creamy, comforting and nutritious pasta. 

​To get that perfect sauce, the trick is to take a few spoonfuls of the chickpeas, onion and potatoes and blitz it with a few ladles of the pasta water to create a super creamy sauce. Perfect for a quick and easy weeknight meal that everyone can enjoy. 

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 200g pasta tubetti 
• 200g cooked chickpeas 
• ½ brown onion (finely chopped)
• 1 potato (diced into 1cm cubes)
• 1 sprig of rosemary (stalk discarded and leaves finely chopped)
• 1 sprig of sage (stalk discarded and leaves finely chopped)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 150ml vegetable stock 
• 10g parsley (finely chopped)
• Fine sea salt and freshly group black pepper 
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Pangrattato to top (optional)

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, ready to cook your pasta.
2. Drizzle a pan with olive oil, add the onion and potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes on a medium heat. Stir in the rosemary and sage and cook for 1 minute. Make some space in the middle of the pan and add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Stir it in and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add the chickpeas to the pan, the stock and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook it for 10 minutes on a medium low heat with the lid on.
4. Meanwhile cook your pasta until al dente. If you can, use a small shape like tubetti or dadini as this is perfect for this pasta sauce. 
5. When the chickpea, potato and onion sauce had 5 minutes of cooking remove half of it from the pan and blitz it together with a few ladles of the pasta water to achieve a nice creamy sauce and set a side.
6. Add the cooked pasta from the pasta water directly to the pan with the chickpeas, potatoes and onions. Then pour in the creamy sauce and stir well. Turn the heat off.
7. Add a drizzle of olive oil and the chopped parsley, if the sauce is too thick, add a splash of the reserved pasta water to loosen it. Stir well again before serving. Serve and top with pangratatto if using. 

Watch the recipe video

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