Pasta e Ceci

Easy·25 min active + 1 hour 5 min resting

San Marino's chickpea-and-pasta pot — chickpeas simmered with garlic, rosemary, and tomato, then short pasta cooked right in until creamy and thick. The rustic Apennine everyday primo.

Pasta e ceci is a rustic chickpea soup-stew shared by San Marino, the Marche and central Italy, the chickpeas simmered with pasta and perfumed with rosemary and garlic. It is cucina povera — humble pantry cooking made deeply satisfying.

Spoon up pasta e ceci — a thick, creamy pot of nutty chickpeas and short pasta, fragrant with rosemary and garlic, glossed with green olive oil. Bite: the chickpeas are buttery and earthy, the pasta tender, the broth half-creamy from blended chickpeas, the rosemary piney and warming. Humble, filling, and deeply Italian-central — peasant cooking that satisfies completely.

Frying garlic and rosemary in oil first infuses the whole pot with their aromatics. Blending part of the chickpeas creates a creamy base without cream; cooking the pasta directly in the soup releases starch that thickens it further and lets the pasta drink in flavor — the one-pot logic of cucina povera.

Variations

With pancetta. With a chili kick (a Roman touch). Brothier as a soup. With fresh maltagliati pasta. With a parmesan rind. Topped with fried rosemary.

On the Palate

Where Pasta e Ceci sits in the Sammarinese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 4

How it's made

8 steps · 25 min active + 1 hour 5 min waiting

1
62 min
Soak 250 g dried chickpeas overnight; simmer in fresh water 60 min until tender (or use cooked).
2
5 min
Gently fry 3 sliced garlic cloves and a sprig of rosemary in 4 tbsp olive oil.
Watch out
Fry the garlic and rosemary gently in the oil until just fragrant and pale gold — let the garlic brown and the whole pot turns bitter.
3
4 min
Add 1 tbsp tomato paste and 1 chopped tomato; cook 3 min.
4
11 min
Add the chickpeas with some of their cooking water; simmer 10 min.
5
4 min
Blend a third of the chickpeas smooth and stir back in for creaminess.
Watch out
Blend about a third of the chickpeas until smooth and stir it back in — this is what makes the soup creamy without any cream.
6
12 min
Add 200 g short pasta (ditalini or maltagliati) and enough water; cook until al dente.
Watch out
Cook the pasta right in the soup to al dente — it keeps softening off the heat, so pull it while there's still a firm bite.
7
2 min
Season with salt, pepper, and a final drizzle of olive oil.
8
2 min
Serve hot, the consistency thick and creamy.