Chickpea Polpette Pasta – Food That Looks After You

Описание: Chickpea Polpette Pasta – Food That Looks After You.
This episode is part of my Food That Looks After You series, where I share simple, nourishing meals that are rooted in Mediterranean cooking and everyday life. Today I am cooking with chickpeas, one of the most reliable and balanced foods in traditional Italian and Sicilian kitchens. Chickpeas are affordable, filling, rich in fibre, and gentle on the gut. They are a food that sustains you quietly, without needing labels or trends.

In this recipe I turn chickpeas into soft polpette, a vegetarian alternative to the meat versions many of us grew up with, and combine them with pasta, tomatoes, olive oil, herbs, and lemon. The result is a comforting, complete meal that feels generous and satisfying while still being light and balanced.

This is a vegetarian dish. It is not vegan because I use cheese and eggs, but it can easily be adapted by using a plant based cheese alternative.

As with all the recipes in this series, I focus on:

simple ingredients
gentle cooking
good digestion
meals that work across more than one day

INGREDIENTS
Chickpea Polpette
250 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or 500 g soaked chickpeas)
or
2 tins chickpeas (about 240 g net weight each), drained

Cold water for cooking
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
Juice of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper, to taste
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or dried)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
40 g cheddar cheese (or another melting cheese)
2 eggs
Dry breadcrumbs (about 6 heaped tablespoons, as needed)
or flour as an alternative
Soffritto and Sauce
Extra virgin olive oil
Onion, celery, and parsley (fresh or frozen mix)
2 cloves of garlic
300 g plum tomatoes, chopped
Additional rosemary

Pasta
Short pasta (macaroni used here)
Salt for pasta water

To Finish
Fresh or frozen parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon zest

METHOD
1. Cook the chickpeas
If using dried chickpeas, soak them overnight. Cook them in cold water with a bay leaf and no salt for 20 to 25 minutes until tender but still slightly firmer than tinned chickpeas. Keep the cooking water. This water will be used later for pasta and sauce as it carries flavour and starch. If using tinned chickpeas, drain them and keep the quantities roughly equivalent.

2. Prepare the chickpea base
Set aside one third of the chickpeas whole. Blend the remaining chickpeas with garlic, lemon juice, and about three ladles of the chickpea cooking water. Add the water gradually. The mixture should be smooth but not sloppy. This restraint is important because consistency can always be corrected later.

3. Build the polpette mixture
Transfer the blended chickpeas to a bowl. Add salt, pepper, rosemary, cumin, cheese, and eggs. Mix well and assess the consistency. Add breadcrumbs gradually until the mixture becomes workable and holds its shape. This adjustment depends on the chickpeas used and is part of normal cooking, not a mistake.

4. Shape the polpette
Keep one hand wet and one dry. Use a teaspoon to portion the mixture and roll into small balls. This method avoids sticky hands and gives evenly sized polpette. Size is flexible. Smaller works better with pasta.

5. Cook the polpette gently
Make a soffritto with olive oil, onion, celery, and parsley in a large saucepan. Add ladles of chickpea cooking water to prevent sticking. Place the polpette into the pan with space between them. Sprinkle the reserved whole chickpeas on top, cover, and cook gently for about 10 minutes without lifting the lid.

6. Prepare the tomato base
In a separate pan, gently fry garlic in olive oil, then add garlic, chopped tomatoes and rosemary. Cook for about 7 minutes until the tomatoes release their juices. No salt is needed here because seasoning is layered throughout the dish.

7. Cook the pasta
Reboil the chickpea cooking water, topping up if needed. Salt lightly and cook the pasta until just al dente. Reserve the pasta water.

8. Bring everything together
Return the polpette to the heat. Add a little pasta water to create a base, then add the pasta. Finish cooking together so the pasta absorbs flavour. Add the tomatoes off the heat to preserve their freshness.

9. Finish and serve
Stir through parsley, cover briefly, then serve with extra olive oil and a little lemon zest. Because of the lemon, no extra cheese is needed at the end.

00:00 Introduction to the series and chickpeas
00:31 Soaked vs dry chickpeas and quantities
00:55 Cooking chickpeas and keeping the water
02:14 Making vegetarian chickpea polpette
02:52 Blending chickpeas and building the mixture
05:31 Shaping the polpette
06:15 Cooking the polpette gently
07:52 Tomato base and Sicilian technique
09:21 Cooking the pasta and combining everything
11:13 Finishing touches, nutrition and tasting

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