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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 a

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Hello!  My name is Carmen author of The Heirloom Chronicles.  The intention for this blog came from a desire to document my family recipes and traditions along with their related stories.  I am an Italo Australian born in Domodossola, a small city in the Piedmont region in the north of Italy.  My parents and sister are from the Basilicata region of Italy – papa` from Acerenza, mamma from Montemurro and my sister from Potenza.    

We migrated to Australia in 1970 and with this great move we brought with us as many of our heirlooms and maintained food traditions that have kept us connected with our family back home.    I married an Australian who is of Sicilian descendant and with these three regions of Italy coming together in our family, recipes with related stories have evolved.   
The ingredients I cook with and write about are those that my grandparents grew and cooked with, maintaining this philosophy of 'cucina povera' that my parents still live by. Making do with humble seasonal ingredients and transforming them into memorable tasty dishes resonates with my idea of cooking.   These most treasured heirlooms are the sweet memories of our family that I write about and wish to pass down to my children.

The Heirloom Chronicles blog has been inspired by my varied interests in cooking - researching recipes and ingredients from the past; gardening - learning to grow, preserve and cook with fruits, vegetable, herbs and wild greens commonly used by my parents & grandparents.

I also love to travel, have an appreciation for art and photography, so occasionally you will see this interwoven through my blog posts, and Instagram. I cook from the heart and hope you enjoy reading my blog!

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