Ciceri e Tria (Brothy Pasta with Chickpeas)
Ciceri e tria is the dish Salento loves best, a brothy bowl of chickpeas and pasta with no cheese anywhere near it. The pasta is made from durum wheat with some barley flour, and a third of it is fried before going in at the end. That crisp pasta was meant to stand in for meat when meat was scarce, and it gives the soft bowl a chewy, toasted contrast.
Instructions
Soak the dried chickpeas in water overnight, then drain them.
Put the chickpeas in a large pot with fresh water. Add the finely diced carrots, onions and celery, along with the bay leaves and salt, and simmer until the chickpeas are tender.
While the chickpeas cook, make the pasta dough from about 30% barley flour and 70% hard durum wheat flour, adding water until it comes together as a pasta dough. Roll it out and cut thin ribbons, several times thicker than egg pasta would allow, then dry them for a few hours.
Set aside a third of the pasta and fry it in small batches in extra virgin olive oil.
Adjust the water level in the chickpea pot, bring it back to a boil and add the remaining raw pasta. Cook for around 3 minutes, until the pasta is tender.
Stir in the fried pasta, the diced parsley and a good glug of raw oil. Serve in bowls.
Make it personal.
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