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Dinner Tonight: Puglian Chickpea Soup

Posted by Blake Royer, November 18, 2008 at 4:15 PM

I've gotten into a habit of cooking a pot of dried beans every Sunday, then finding ways to use them throughout the week (soupy beans make a wonderful breakfast with a fried egg on top). Recently I cooked chickpeas instead of the usual kidney or black beans, and with lots to spare plus an itching for soup, I set out to see what I could find. This Puglian recipe, which I found on the ever-marvelous 101 Cookbooks, won my heart with its talk of fried shards of pasta and all of 4 ingredients.

Normally the soup is made with dried chickpeas simmered in the broth, which lends the soup body, but for a weeknight meal, pre-cooked is fine. (Pasta cooking water can replace some of the lost thickness that would come from the dried beans.) Otherwise, it's only a matter of simmering the chickpeas until they're cooked through, and cooking the pasta alongside. Most of the pasta goes into the soup to finish cooking, but some is reserved and then fried in a half-inch of olive oil. It lend a crispy texture that stays that way in the broth and transforms otherwise humble ingredients into something unique. Good quality, homemade chicken stock helps--since I didn't have any on hand, I added a not-unwelcome pinch of saffron threads that deepened the flavor considerably.

Puglian Chickpea Soup

-serves 4-

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

4 cups chicken stock, ideally homemade
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas
6 ounces dried pasta with a broad surface for drying, such as pappardelle
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Small pinch of saffron threads (optional)

Procedure

1. If starting from dried, bring the chickpeas and stock to boil and simmer until the beans are cooked through. If using canned, drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to simmering stock and cook until tender.

2. In the meantime, boil the pasta until a little less than al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water and 1/3 of the pasta for frying in olive oil. Add the rest to the simmering soup, along with pasta water as desired for thickness. Just don't add so much that the chicken flavor is too diluted.

3. Warm the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking (it's important not to impart bitterness with high heat). Fry the pasta until crisp but still pliable, about 2 minutes per side (it should sizzle in the oil). Add the fried noodles to the soup and taste for seasoning. Serve in shallow bowls and drizzle some of the frying oil over each bowl, as desired.

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Tags: chickpeas, Italian, Puglian, soup

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