Brothy Pasta e Ceci
And thoughts on salt and sugar in America
Hello! A lot of meals can be improved by the addition of a few anchovies. This week’s recipe is my favourite current example. Conversely, a lot of meals can be ruined by too much salt: I discuss getting severe salt burn in Philadelphia further down.
Pasta e Ceci is one of the great meals to make when your pay packet is dwindling and you want something comforting to be eaten out of a bowl. I’ve found myself cooking it quite regularly lately and enjoying it in the same vein as Beans and Rice. Easy, filling, comforting but not unhealthy.
I like making it with annelli because it makes me feel like I’m having grown-up spaghetti hoops for dinner. I’ve made it soupier than your average Pasta e Ceci here, and I enjoy it with plenty of onion and a little kick from everyone’s favourite tiny little fish: anchovies. It’s simple but I can’t stop eating it. And our baby likes it too. Hope it’s a hit with you.
Brothy Anchovy Pasta e Ceci
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium/large onion, thinly sliced
1-2 garlic cloves
4 anchovies
1 tin of tomatoes or 4 fresh tomatoes, peeled and quartered
400g cooked chickpeas (either soaked and boiled or from a couple of jars/cans)
1L vegetable stock
110g annelli pasta (or other small pasta shape)
Toast, olive oil, chilli flakes and pesto (optional) to serve
In a heavy, deep pot, slowly sauté your sliced onion in the olive oil with a pinch of salt for 8-10 minutes. Then, add the sliced garlic clove/s, and the anchovies and cook for 2-3 minutes. (You can also add a sprig of rosemary or a few fennel seeds here if you fancy).
Next, add the tinned or fresh tomatoes, the cooked chickpeas and the stock, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Allow to bubble away for 5 minutes or so and stir well.
Finally add the pasta, and cook until it’s al dente. This usually takes 15-18 minutes for the annelli I buy. The starch from the pasta will thicken the broth a little. Serve in bowls with toast topped with pesto and a drizzle of olive oil, if you like.
I’m writing about what we ate in Philadelphia for a publication, and I’ll share that here when it’s published. But one thing I have to get off my chest before then is my first experience of salt burn.
It was the result of eating two things from Dutch Eating Place, an Amish food stall at Reading Terminal Market, in the heart of the city. The dishes were called ‘Cream Chipped Beef’ and Scrapple. They were the saltiest things I’ve ever eaten.
After tasting both, I immediately had to buy an orange juice. But, I didn’t realise that, after a dehydrating 7-hour plane journey home, all that salt had actually burnt my tongue. And I’m talking a burn that resulted in bumps and ulcers, but also actual damage to my tastebuds that stopped them from working and made food feel scratchy. My tongue took 5 days to remedy! I can see why suing is so big over there…
As for the sugar, it was in high-supply in the savoury as well as the sweet foods. Our son seemed to go on hunger strike when we landed, which was alarming. But one of the things (besides raspberries) we finally managed to get him to eat was a tiny bite of a pizza from Cacia’s Bakery in South Philly. He immediately got hyper, babbling away in his pram, all wheeeeees and ooohs, as if he was going down a slide again and again. Tasting the pizza myself, sure enough its sugo was rib-achingly sweet. Little man was riding high.
The moral of the story? Hydrate when you eat in the United States of America, and beware the sugar rush – it could come from any angle.