Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Chickpeas

It has been a long time since I made orecchiette but when I caught this recipe in our pairings book , I remembered how much I love the little parcels of pasta. This is a real hearty, healthy pasta dish that would be plenty on its own but I made it as a side with a rack of lamb, for a terrifically huge Shabbat dinner.

As a hummus freak,  I feel silly that I never thought of blending chickpeas in a pasta sauce. The chickpeas thicken things up and coat the pasta perfectly. Tiny bursts of rich chickpea and tomato get trapped in the little ears. The original recipe calls for pancetta and ricotta salata but as I was making lamb and a kosher dish, I ommited these two items. With the pine nuts, currants and chickpeas the dish had a lot going on even without pancetta and cheese.  Though maybe I just tell myself that so I don’t feel bad about cutting pancetta from my diet ;) If you do ommit them, you may want to compensate with some extra salt.

Ingredients, Serves 4:

2-3 whole canned plum tomatoes with their juice
1 (14-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
4 slices pancetta, cut into 1/4 inch pieces (*optional)
Kosher or sea salt
1 bunch broccoli rabe (recipe also suggests dandelion greens but I made a salad with them instead)
1 pound orecchiette
crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups crumbled ricotta salata cheese (*optional)
2 tbsp dried currants
1/4 cup pine nuts or almost, toasted

Combine the tomatoes and half of the chickpeas in a food processor with 1 cup water; process until smooth.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion and pancetta (if using), stirring often, until lightly browned. Add the rest of the chickpeas and cook a minute or two longer. Stir in the pureed chickpea mixture. Reduce the heat until the mixture is barely simmering.

Meanwhile, combine 6 quarts water with 2 tablespoons salt in a large pan. Bring to a boil. Cook the broccoli rabe a minute or two until just limp; remove with tongs and cool under running water. Add the pasta to the boiling water, stirring well. While the pasta cooks, coarsely chop the greens. Stir the greens into the chickpea sauce. Add salt and crushed red pepper to taste.

When the orecchiete is al dente, reserve about a cup of the cooking liquid, then drain. Return the pasta to the pan and mix in the sauce, adding pasta water as needed for a saucy consistency. Stir in half of the ricotta salata (if using) and all of the currants. Serve the pasta in a large bowl or plate individually. Sprinkle the remaining ricotta salata and the pine nuts on top. Serve immediately.

We enjoyed this with an Eden Valley Syrah since I was serving lamb, but you could also match it up with a lean, juicy Italian red like a Barbera to really make the chickpeas stand out.

Related Posts:
Steamed Broccoli with Pine Nuts and Sundried Tomatoes

Old School SNL Collection

‘Inoteca e Liquori Bar (3rd Avenue)

Filed under Pasta, Recipes, Side Dishes | Comment (0)