The recipe

2 servingsabout 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 140 g ditalini or similar small, short pasta
  • 240 g cooked chickpeas, drained
  • 1 shallot
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 small rosemary sprig
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 600 ml lightly salted vegetable stock, plus hot water as needed
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Peel and finely dice the shallot and garlic. Finely chop the rosemary needles. Heat the stock.
  2. Mash 80 g chickpeas with 3 tbsp of the stock. Leave the remaining 160 g whole; count the mashing liquid within the total stock quantity.
  3. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Soften the shallot over medium-low heat for 4 minutes. Add the garlic, about ½ tsp rosemary and tomato paste, then stir for 1 minute.
  4. Add the whole and mashed chickpeas with a total of 450 ml stock, including the amount already used. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
  5. Stir in the pasta and cook al dente according to the packet, stirring regularly. Gradually add the remaining hot stock and, if needed, extra hot water so that the pasta cooks in freely moving liquid.
  6. Remove from the heat and rest for 2 minutes. Adjust the consistency with a little hot liquid, season with salt and pepper and divide between two deep plates.

Weigh cooked chickpeas after draining

You need 240 grams of already cooked chickpeas after draining. For a tin, use the drained weight rather than the total weight printed on the front. Rinse the chickpeas briefly and let them drain. Dried chickpeas are not a direct replacement in this method: soak them according to the packet and cook until fully tender first. That preparation is not included in the 35-minute timing.

Mash 80 grams of the prepared chickpeas with a fork and a little of the measured stock. Leave the remaining 160 grams whole. The mash does not have to be completely smooth; small pieces work well with the short pasta. A blender is unnecessary for this small amount. Rosemary has a strong flavour. Strip the needles from a small sprig, chop finely and begin with about half a teaspoon.

Keep enough liquid around the pasta

The dried ditalini go straight into the saucepan and absorb liquid as they cook. Begin with a total of 450 millilitres of stock, including the amount used for mashing, and keep the remaining 150 millilitres hot. Pan width, cooking time and pasta shape affect the amount needed. The pasta should simmer in liquid that you can stir easily. If the mixture thickens too early, add stock or further hot water as required.

Stir regularly across the bottom to prevent the thickening mixture from catching. Use the pasta packet time as a guide and judge by its bite. Near the end, add liquid in smaller amounts. The mixture thickens further during its two-minute rest, so leave it slightly looser when switching off the heat than you want it on the plate. Choose lightly salted stock and season at the end: both tinned chickpeas and stock may already contribute salt.