Let’s make the most of simple, healthy food — chickpeas.
We do not need perfectly stocked pantries to cook satisfying meals. Some of the best dishes come from using what we already have on hand and allowing simple ingredients to shine.
I always keep chickpeas and other pulses in my pantry and freezer. I soak dried pulses overnight, change the water, add bay leaves, or rosemary, or sage, or thyme and then cook them slowly over low heat.THe different herbs will impart a different taste.
Once cooked, I transfer the surplus into glass jars, cover them with their cooking liquid and store them in the freezer. They are nutritious, economical and always ready to use.
Chickpeas have long been central to Mediterranean cooking, especially in Italy, where they appear in soups, pasta dishes and rustic contorni. They are humble ingredients, but deeply satisfying.
Here are some very different dishes using chickpeas — both simple, improvised and full of flavour.
Would these dishes belong to particular Italian regions? Perhaps not directly. But the ingredients and cooking methods certainly sit comfortably within Italian and Mediterranean traditions. The cauliflower pasta especially feels connected to the type of food my mother would have cooked — practical, seasonal and deeply nourishing.
Pasta with Cauliflower and Chickpeas
This pasta dish came together with ingredients I already had at home: chickpeas, cauliflower, passata, herbs and chilli.
The herb I used was nepitella, which grows abundantly on my balcony at this time of year. Oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram or parsley would all work beautifully.
The cauliflower was the common white variety — inexpensive, easy to find and a vegetable that keeps well in the fridge. I prefer spring onions to regular onions for their gentler flavour, but either can be used. There was also garlic and homemade stock involved, because there are always jars of broth in my freezer.
The method was straightforward and very Italian in spirit. I began with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and spring onion gently sautéed. The cauliflower followed, then stock, herbs, seasoning and just enough passata to lightly colour the dish. Everything simmered slowly until tender and fragrant.
I cooked the short pasta separately, though I could easily have added extra stock and cooked the pasta directly in the sauce. I wanted this to be a softer, slightly brothy pasta dish — comforting and rustic.
Chickpeas with Saffron, Mushrooms and Eggplant
The second dish was more improvised.There is no traditional name because it simply evolved from what I had in the fridge at the time. That is often how good home cooking begins.
I sautéed spring onion in olive oil, added whole mushrooms, then chickpeas and strips of eggplant. Saffron went in for warmth and colour, along with marjoram from the balcony garden. The liquid was the chickpea cooking broth itself — rich, earthy and too good to waste.
Before serving, I added fresh mint for brightness.
Cooking with What We Have
Being creative in my kitchen gives me much pleasure. One of the reasons I enjoy camping or cooking in Airbnbs while travelling is that I cannot rely on having every ingredient or every kitchen tool available. There is creativity in limitation.
You adapt. You improvise. You cook with what is there.
And often those meals become the most memorable.
I MUST LIKE CHICKPEAS – RECIPES:
CECI (CHICKPEAS) IN SICILIA: Cucina Povera
CHICKPEAS SOUP WITH WILD FENNEL (Minestra di ceci con finocchio, erba selvatica)
