Make The Whole Family Happy: One Pot Pasta and Chickpeas

A blissfully cozy Roman pasta soup, plus festive Lake Como in winter, and Rachel Roddy

Dec 23, 2024

Ciao friends!

I hope you’re well and having a beautiful day whatever holidays you’re celebrating! It’s Christmas-time in Italy and that means Christmas markets all up and down the little villages of Lake Como. I’m so happy you’re here. I thought of you all when I was taking December photos to share with you below.

But first, I have an effortless 40-minute scrumptious please-everyone one-pot pasta to ease your holiday cooking on the non-holiday days! Ceci means chickpeas or garbanzo beans in Italian and pasta e ceci is my ‘everything pasta’. It’s:

an authentic Roman dish which happens to be
meatless and
also easily vegan if you leave out the parmigiano,
economical ‘cucina povera’ style cooking at pennies per serving, and
easy to make in less than an hour, most of which is you sitting and inhaling the savory aroma enveloping your kitchen
made in just one pot.

Even better, pasta e ceci is a ‘piatto unico’ which means it’s a dish full meal in one plate - including carbs and protein and vegetables, so there’s no need to prepare multiple courses. This dish, in all it’s wintery fabulousness, is that. Jump ahead to the recipe or join me for a little trip around the lake…

December on Lake Como

Lake Como is fascinating in every season and I particularly love this moment. Tourists have trickled down to nearly zero. The lake puts away its emerald green summer hue for winter moods of bright boat-filled-blue and steely gray reflecting the winter sky. The natural beauty, architecture, and light never cease to make me stop and marvel. I’m an endless tourist here.

Come enjoy some wintery Lake Como with me. From top left to right:

Brienno Christmas Market sign for apple brule, chestnuts and cream
Stone tunnels in the village of Brienno
Christmas street lights in Como town
Morning sun looking toward the Duomo di Como
The Christmas merry-go-round at Porta Torre in Como town
Colorful sweetgum leaves and seed pods like Christmas baubles
Bar Pizzeria da Quinto, Como
Ice shards in cobblestones at Villa Olmo
A brisk winter sunrise Villa Olmo

Wish you were here! But trust me, a close second best is making pasta e ceci wherever you are…

Pasta e ceci memories and Rachel Roddy

A few months ago, Rachel Roddy, accomplished food writer and immigrant to Italy, popped up on my radar in the Substack app. Her name didn’t ring a bell until I read that she was the author of the Wordpress blog, Rachel Eats. I hadn’t thought about Rachel Eats for more than 10 years and was so happy to have rediscovered her! Rachel held a special place in my heart upon my arrival in Italy.

When I first moved to my new rural Italian home from my life of hyper-convenience in Manhattan, it was a serious case of overwhelm. I was pregnant, working full time, and travelling regularly to my clients in Belgium and Texas. Additionally, the new house/villa was remote, so after 20 years of walking and public transport, I suddenly had to drive everywhere and my crutch of take-out food simply did not exist. At that time, there was only take away pizza in Como town and certainly no delivery to my little village. I had arrived with limited cooking skills, a lot on my plate, and a real need to learn how to cook.

I wanted to learn authentic Italian recipes. My mother-in-law began giving me cooking lessons, which was a dream, but I also wanted to branch out and discover more recipes on my own. My Italian was too new to trudge through Italian recipes at the same time I was learning the language, so I began searching for authentic Italian recipes on the internet in English and happily discovered Rachel, a young English woman living in Rome with her Italian boyfriend, passionate about Roman home cooking and sharing her life. Rachel has a way of describing food in Rome that makes you feel like you’re right there in her kitchen sharing a chat over a warm bowl.

To my good fortune, way back in 2010, Rachel had recently posted her recipe for pasta e ceci. It seemed achievable, even for me, so I made it asap. My ex rarely complimented me on anything but he gave that meal a rating of BUONISSIMA. And so, pasta e ceci became a winter staple in my new home. In fact, over the years, the dish became so much my own that I’d forgotten where I learned it! So I was flooded with nostaglia and happy memories upon finding Rachel again and re-reading her recipe. Here it is: Rachel Eats, Pasta e Ceci. Thank you, Rachel!

I’ve since had countless guests and friends ask me for the recipe; it’s one of my go-tos on a cold winter day. My top tips:

Size matters: chop the veggies as small as uncooked chickpeas. Don’t be lazy and chop them big, they will not melt into the soup. These are not veggies for a minestrone - they are creating the flavorful base for the soup, which in Italian is called the ‘soffritto’. The 3 vegetables of onion, carrot, and celery are the classic Italian soffritto ingredients. You’ll see this again and again in Italian recipes. I’m shocked to realized that this is the first time I write about soffritto for you in WPFI!
I usually use and prefer the pure flavor of passata, or tomato puree, in this soup, but I’ll use whatever I have on hand or is open. When I cooked the recipe to take photos, I had a few little daterini tomatoes rolling around the kitchen so I used those.
parmigiano rind: always always ALWAYS save the rind of your parmigiano reggiano. Wrap it up tightly and store it in your freezer for soups! A lot of people mistakenly think it is made of wax but it is all CHEESE, gorgeous cheese. When you add the rind to a soup, it flavors the broth with umami savoriness and also turns itself into a kind of melty little parmigiano steak for one of your lucky eaters to carve up with a knife and fork.
Using canned chickpea water vs. veggie broth vs. just plain water as your ‘broth’ base: Any of these options will result in a gloriously delicious, richly flavorful, earthy, beany soup. I’ve made it all ways depending on what I’ve got in the house. Chickpea water does add depth of flavor - and salt - but if you have trouble digesting beans, strain and rinse your chickpeas.
To cook the pasta in the broth - or cook it separately in salted boiling water, then add it to the soup? That is the question… and I am not going to give you an option on this one but I swear it’s for your own good! You know how I love cooking the pasta in the veggie cooking water because the pasta absorbs the flavor (think here and here!), so just do it. It’s a genius authentic Italian cooking hack! I have you start with one full liter of water or broth so there’s enough savory yumminess to cook the pasta.
Leftovers: This is a very satisfying meatless pasta that makes fab leftovers. If you won’t eat all the soup in one go, take out a portion of the chickpeas and broth BEFORE you add the pasta. It will keep in the fridge for 2 days. You can reheat to boiling and add your pasta then.
On to the recipe and wishing you the very best this festive season. I’m grateful for you being a part of this community and would love to hear how you’re spending your holiday! ❤️

soffrito of onion, carrot, and celery; parmigiano rind, rosemary, and a few pieces of tomato just added

Pasta and chickpea soup

Pasta e ceci

FOR 3-4 PEOPLE

The ingredients

8 Tbls good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped into small dice
1 large celery stalk, chopped into small dice
1 medium to large white or yellow onion, chopped into small dice
1 spring fresh rosemary
2 Tbls tomato passata or 2 diced cherry tomatoes
1 250g can of chickpeas
1 l water, vegetable broth, or the canned chickpea water plus the water or broth up to a liter
6 g / 1 tsp salt
350 g ditalini
Optional: rind of parmigiano reggiano and/or grated parmigiano reggiano

The method

1) Add the extra virgin olive oil to a pot on medium-low heat. Heat for a minute, then add all the chopped onion, carrot, and celery. Stir to coat. This classic trinity of veggies will be your ‘soffritto’ - a flavorful base for the soup. Keep the heat low and when the veggies are soft and the onion is translucent, move to the next step.

2) Add your sprig of fresh rosemary, passata or tomato, and parmigiano rind.

3) Add chickpeas and 1 liter of water with 1 Tablespoon of salt. Cover and bring to a boil.

4) Taste your soup. Slowly add more salt, stir to dissolve, and taste again. Lower the heat to a simmer and cover again, stirring occassionally.

I can’t tell you exactly how much to add since it depends on how salty your salt and chickpeas are. Be thoughtful and when it’s salty as you like it, stop.
Keep the lid on! You’ll need the broth to cook the pasta as well, so you don’t want it to evaporate. If it does, you can add boiling water, but this will sadly dilute your broth and your soup won’t be as flavorful.

5) Set your timer for 20 minutes, continuing to simmer. Taste a chickpea with some broth. Is it soft to the bite? If you like it, you may add your pasta now. Or you can continue to cook for another hour for softer chickpeas and a more creamy consistency. I personally prefer it cooked longer, but if it’s a weeknight, I don’t always have time.

6) Ladle into bowls and top with grated parmigiano reggiano, a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, and freshly ground pepper if you like. The lucky one gets the parmigiano ‘steak’!

Buon appetito!

Serving tips:

· Serve with extra parmigiano reggiano and olive oil at the table. Crustly bread is great for doing the scarpetta to scoop the last slurps in the bowl!

Notes:

Salt: It’s important not to skimp. This salt is flavoring both your pasta and also your sauce in the form of pasta water.

Pasta: ditalini - small tubes with or without ridges - are really perfection here because its the same size as the chickpeas and chopped veggies. Another classic pasta and ceci combination from Napoli is with pasta mista, or mixed pasta shapes.