Brothy Pasta With Chickpeas Are Like Healthyish Spaghetti-Os

Hi, hello. Welcome to cooking purgatory, also known as March or sprinter. It’s the transitional period between winter and spring, and we’ve lost interest in braising and roasting. We're anticipating fresh farmers’ market offerings (rhubarb! snap peas!)...while bracing for the possibility of one final snowstorm. It’s time for brothy pasta with chickpeas.

No, we’re not talking about chickpea pasta, though you could certainly use the gluten-free stuff. Instead this recipe is based on pasta e ceci, a cousin of pasta e fagioli that swaps white beans for creamy chickpeas. It’s a classic Roman dish from the cucina povera (literally: peasant food) canon, with endless variations that feature tomatoes, anchovies, pancetta, and other flavorful ingredients. The starchy broth lands somewhere between a soup and a pasta sauce, which is a very delicious place to be.

“I’ve made a version of pasta e ceci for years and always cook the chickpeas from scratch, so I wanted to make a one-pot version with canned chickpeas that’s less time consuming,” says senior food editor Andy Baraghani. He collab-ed with senior food editor Chris Morocco to create an all-in-one, super-satisfying dinner that comes together in fewer than 20 minutes.

The recipe relies on true pantry staples: canned tomatoes, onions, canned chickpeas, and orecchiette. (Ditalini, tubetti, or any other short pasta works great too.) Best of all, it’s a true one-pot meal. You start by sweating down onions and garlic to create a basic soffritto, then layer in flavor with a bit of rosemary and red pepper. In go canned chickpeas and crushed tomatoes, then dried pasta and water. The chickpeas become creamy-tender while the pasta cooks, releasing starch to thicken the broth. Keep the pasta al dente, then stir in chopped parsley and shaved Parm before finishing each bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and several generous cranks of black pepper. The final hit of heat brightens up the whole dish. The recipe is ripe for riffing too: Next time I'll sub in fresh chiles instead of dried or replace the rosemary with sage and thyme.

I served this pasta with a small green salad and a hunk of crusty bread for dipping, which was just as delicious as it sounds. It was a welcome break from my usual winter diet of sweet potatoes, although I'll definitely keep making this quick-and-brothy little number when warmer weather (finally) arrives. Seasonal cooking is a wonderful thing, but the allure of chickpeas and pasta is evergreen.

Get brothy:

Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas