Pasta E Ceci
By: Frank Fariello
Published: Friday, December 10, 2010 - 1:02am

Ingredients




2 onions
2 carrots
1 stk celery
4 cloves plump garlic
6 smalls dried chillies, or to taste
4 ounces pancetta lardons
olive oil
1 small tin tomatoes in juice, chopped
1 bouquet garni
18 ounces cooked weight chickpeas
10 1/2 ounces ditali, short macaroni pasta
4 ounces parmesan cheese, grated
1 bay leaf
1 sprg rosemary
few parsley stalks, tied together
olive oil

Preparation

1 Peel and dice the onions, carrots and celery stick. Chop the garlic and chillies and put these plus the pancetta into a large heavy saucepan, along with a good 2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil. 2 Cook for about 10 minutes then add chopped tomatoes, bouquet garni and chickpeas. Bring to a simmer, adding enough water to cover the chickpeas by about 1 inch. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the pancetta is tender. 3 Now turn up the heat and having removed the lid, add the pasta, stir and return to the boil. Cook, stirring often for 5 minutes, then remove the saucepan from the heat, cover and set aside for 10 minutes. 4 Open the pan, add a good slug of olive oil and the freshly grated Parmesan. 5 Check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed. The liquid should have been almost completely absorbed by the pasta.