Cookbook:Ciceri e Tria (Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas)

| Cuisine of Italy

Ciceri e tria is the most beloved dish of Salento, Italy. It's a brothy pasta dish, with the addition of chickpeas. A third of the pasta is fried, the rest boiled directly into the broth. Its brothiness varies and sometimes you'll be given a spoon with it, sometimes you won't. Cheese is always absent. The addition of the fried pasta was meant to mimic the texture of meat, back when it was scarce.

This recipe was translated and adapted by Silvestro Silvestori, owner of The Awaiting Table Cookery School, Lecce, Italy.

Ingredients

 * Dried chickpeas
 * Carrots, diced finely
 * Onions, diced finely
 * Celery, diced finely
 * Barley flour
 * Hard durum wheat flour
 * Salt
 * Chilli peppers
 * Parsley, diced
 * Bay leaves
 * Oil

Procedure

 * 1) Soak the chickpeas overnight.
 * 2) Drain the chickpeas and add to a large pot with fresh water. Add the vegetables, bay leaves, and salt, then simmer until tender.
 * 3) Meanwhile, make the pasta, by adding roughly 30% barley flour to the 70% hard durum wheat flour and water until you reach a pasta consistency. Roll out into thin ribbons, several times thicker than egg pasta allows. Dry for a few hours.
 * 4) Take a third of the pasta and fry in small batches in extra virgin olive oil.
 * 5) Regulate water, bring the chickpeas to a boil again, and add the raw pasta.
 * 6) Cook until tender (around 3 minutes). Add fried pasta, the diced parsley and a good glug of raw oil.
 * 7) Serve in bowls.