Minestra di Ceci

Chickpea soup thickened by puréeing half of itself, with rosemary infused in oil.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 350 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 onion, 1 celery stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• black pepper

Method

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight. Simmer them with the onion, celery and bay for 90 minutes, salting only at the end.
2. Lift out the vegetables and bay.
3. PUREE HALF THE CHICKPEAS WITH SOME OF THEIR LIQUID and stir that back in. That is the only thickening — no flour, no potato, and no pasta, which is what separates this from lagane e ceci and from ciceri e tria.
4. INFUSE THE ROSEMARY IN THE OIL instead of boiling it in the soup: warm the oil with the garlic and rosemary over the lowest heat for 10 minutes, then lift both out and discard them.
5. Rosemary simmered in the pot turns medicinal and the needles end up in the spoon. Infused and removed, it scents the whole bowl and leaves nothing behind.
6. Pour the flavoured oil into the soup, check the salt, and serve with a lot of pepper.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes