I’ve been neglecting the huge stack of new magazines purchased over the past few months and have been feeling somewhat guilty recently because I have made no effort whatsoever to rectify the situation. I’ve come to a point where the pile has become somewhat intimidating – there are just too many of them and I don’t know where to start.
I have a small disorder that prevents me from making this process any easier where I have to make recipes in chronological order starting from the first magazine I bought to the last. I won’t go into too much detail here because it’s actually quite sick. Let’s just say that when you start experiencing strong guilt issues with objects you may need to reevaluate a thing or two.
This becomes especially problematic in this situation because the first magazine I bought was entirely dedicated to really fancy cakes off all shapes and sizes, the sort that requires time I currently don’t have. Not to mention that it wouldn’t hurt me to cut down on the cakes of all shapes and sizes… I have to confess that I made that truly amazing Harvest Butternut Squash Loaf again yesterday, twice in 4 days, that has to be a record.
Anyway, while going through this offending pile of magazines over the weekend I decided that I was not allowed to make any new purchases until I have at least attempted one recipe from each. Needless to say I had to skip over that first purchased, which is still really bugging me so there’s a good chance that there will be a fancy cake post in the near future if I can’t find a way to stifle the guilt.
The recipe I chose was from La Cucina Italiana, I’m a major sucker for Italian cooking magazines and was immediately drawn to this recipe. There’s something about certain Italian recipes, they are so simplistic with only a few ingredients that tells me there going to be great. This was no exception and if you love rosemary like I do you should definitely give this little soup a whirl.
Chickpea Soup (Minestra di ceci) - Recipe Adapted from La Cucina Italiana
This requires a little bit of extra time as you have to soak the dried chick peas over night, as well as boil them for 1 1/2 hours until they’re tender. It’s totally worth that little bit of extra effort and the soup itself comes together extremely easily.
1 cup dried chickpeas
7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
7 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
4 cups beef broth
coarse salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper
Cover chickpeas in cold water and soak for 8 hours or over night. Drain.
Simmer chickpeas in water covered by 2 inches of water for 1 to 1 1/2hours or until they are tender, but not mushy. Drain Chickpeas.
Combine oil and rosemary in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring just to a simmer to infuse the olive oil. Remove from heat, discard the rosemary and set aside.
Place the flour into a small bowl and drizzle 3 tablespoons of the rosemary infused olive oil over top. Stir to combine, making sure all of the flour ids dampened then separate it with your fingers into dime-sized clumps.
Combine the chickpeas and broth in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. With a fork mash about one third of the chickpeas. Add the flour clumps, cook the soup at a simmer, stirring occasionally until the soup is thickened and the flavors have blended,about 15 minutes. Season with salt to taste and thin the soup with a little water if it’s too thick.
Transfer soup to bowls and serve with a little of the left over rosemary infused olive oil. Sprinkle with parsley and pepper.
