Lagane e Ceci (Pasta & Chickpea Soup)

 

Lagane e Ceci is a well-known southern Italian dish whose roots stem from ancient times when legumes were the staple ingredients, easily accessible with a very long shelf life.  Chickpeas, beans or lentils were alternated and cooked with hand made pasta, feeding the whole family. 

This soup is made with dried chickpeas and hand-made ribbons of eggless pasta, but can also be made with canned chickpeas which are just as good, and a short store-bought pasta like ditaletti. Mamma would make it this way when she was time poor.  We however preferred this soup with home-made pasta, rendering it more creamy.

Lagane are believed to be the ancestors of today’s lasagne and the oldest form of pasta. The word lagane, like lasagna, comes from ancient Greece where it was used to describe a pasta made of flour and water, cooked on a stone, and then cut into strips. The Roman statesman Cicero wrote about his passion for the Laganum or laganas and the Roman poet Horace, whose writings are said to be the first written reference to pasta, talks about a soup with lagane and chickpeas.  It is said that he ate this dish in his hometown Venosa in the Vulture-Melfese region of Basilicata.

Ceci e Lagane (Pasta & Chickpea Soup)

Recipe for 4 people

 FOR THE PASTA:

400 grams of durum wheat semolina 

200 ml of water

FOR THE SOUP:

 400 grams of chickpeas

 500 grams of crushed tinned tomatoes

 clove of garlic 

      extra virgin olive oil 

      black pepper 

      salt 

         chili flakes 

     sprig of sage

     shaved parmesan (optional)

Soak the chickpeas for at least one night, then boil them in unsalted water for 1 ½ hours, drain and keep them aside.

In a bowl, add the semolina flour and slowly pour the water while mixing with a fork.  Once the dough comes together, knead until smooth and pliable. This process can be done in a mixer. Cover the dough and allow to rest for half an hour.

In a pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and one clove of garlic. Heat oil and lightly brown the garlic to flavour the oil.  Remove the garlic before it turns brown to avoid the oil becoming bitter.

Add the crushed tomato, salt, pepper, sprig of sage and chili flakes to taste. Cook for 15 minutes and then add the chickpeas. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes until flavoured.

Meanwhile, divide pasta dough into 5 pieces and roll out each piece using a pasta machine or rolling pin to a thickness of 2 millimeters. Hand cut strips of pasta of approximately 2cm wide, resembling wide fettuccine and leave aside. Photo shows machine cut pasta.

Bring to the boiling salted water in a pot and cook the pasta for 1 minute. Drain the pasta and transfer it in the pan with chickpea sauce, mix well and let it rest for a couple of minutes so that the pasta picks up all the flavour.

Drizzling some extra virgin olive oil before serving is highly recommended with some shavings of parmesan cheese on top. 

If you like the sound of this recipe, you can find another version of this soup using just chestnuts and chickpeas here known as zuppa di castagne e ceci.