on Nov 22, 2024
Why You’ll Love Creamy Chickpea Pasta
The whole family will love my modern take on pasta e ceci. 🧡 Instead of the traditional soup recipe, featuring whole chickpeas and mini pasta, I blended everything but the pasta to make a thick, creamy sauce, then folded in pastina. The beauty of this recipe is you can enjoy this as a decadent sauce, or thin it out with broth or water and, voila, it’s a silky bowl of soup. 🪄 Kids will love this recipe—they’ll never guess the cheesy, garlic-y sauce is made from beans and 3 types of vegetables. 🤫 Save this recipe for your next cold winter day, when warming comfort food is an absolute must.
How to Prepare
🔪 Using a sharp knife, dice an onion, a celery rib, and smash 5 cloves of garlic. 🧅 Add olive oil to a pot on medium heat. When it is shimmering, add in the onions, celery, garlic, and a sprig of rosemary. 🌶️ If you’d like, drizzle in a touch of Calabrian chili oil for spice. 🧂 Now, let it cook for 5 minutes as you stir. After the veggies have softened, add in the chickpeas, salt, and pepper. 🔥 Next, pour in the broth and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the veggies have fully softened. ❄️ Now, take the pot off the heat, let it cool a bit, remove the rosemary sprig, and then transfer the rest of it carefully into a blender. 🌀 Blend until smooth. 🧀 Pour the blended chickpea cream back into the pot and add the grated Parmesan cheese. Please use good quality Parmigiano Reggiano cheese here only. Stir and set aside. 🫧 In the meantime, boil the pastina of choice in a large pot of salted water. 💧 Once boiled, reserve some of the pasta water and strain the rest of the pastina. 💦 Add the pastina into the creamy chickpea sauce with a splash of that pasta water (or until desired consistency). 😋 Serve with extra hot pepper oil on top (or a drizzle of finishing olive oil) and enjoy!
Variations and Substitutions for Creamy Chickpea Pasta
Kid Friendly Tips
This Creamy Chickpea Pasta dish is perfection for little eaters. It’s not only cozy and comforting for those with sniffly noses, but it’s also creamy, cheesy, and utterly delicious. I’m telling you, they’ll just think this is a big bowl of 🧀 mac and cheese! They’ll never know the sauce is actually a super-healthy blend of protein- and fiber-rich 🫘 beans, plus three different 🥕 veggies. If making this dish for kids, I suggest using a small pasta shape or pastina, and leaving out the chili oil altogether.
Best Served With
I love a nice fresh 🥗 salad when I eat pasta. Try my Fennel Salad or Simple Green Salad. Serve with seasonal vegetables such as grilled asparagus, steamed broccoli, or 🫑 roasted bell peppers. Slices of baguette or my cheesy roasted garlic bread.
Common Questions
