Andy Makes Pasta with Tomatoes and Chickpeas

So in regards to this shirt,

I'm gonna show it off for a second,

I didn't buy it from Saks Fifth Avenue.

It's Winona Ryder, whom I really, really love.

She had a little bit of an incident in the early aughts

and she stole from Saks Fifth Avenue.

That's all, but it's not [mumbles]

[Interviewer] She's still getting [beep] for that, too.

She's still getting [beep].

It's so not right.

Oh, she's past that.

[upbeat instrumental music]

Today, we're making a dish,

I guess the proper name would be pasta e ceci,

which is Italian for pasta with chickpeas.

This is a type of pasta dish that comes

very much from cucina povera,

which in Italian it translates to peasant cooking

or cooking of the poor,

which is taking ingredients that are easy to find,

pantry ingredients and combining them together

and creating something really delicious.

We have a few different elements.

Everything gets cooked in one pot.

The first is we're just gonna chop some onions.

[knife taps]

This is kind of a medium onion.

I just use half of it.

You don't need [garlic cracks]

the whole onion.

I'm just gonna take three cloves of garlic.

[knife taps]

Okay, so I have three cloves of garlic

I'm just thinly slicing.

[garlic clinks]

I'm keeping the onions and garlic separate but same bowl.

And less dishes.

Okay, I'm gonna take this to the sauce pan.

[knob clicks]

I'm gonna go medium-hi heat, add about three tablespoons.

[spoon clangs]

It's not hot enough.

[spoon clangs]

Okay, you have your onions, we're just sweating them.

We're just trying to soften them, get them to turn golden.

We don't want them to kind of get brown around the edges.

Once they get to that point, we'll stir in the garlic

and let that cook until they're tender

and really fragrant and softened.

Okay, I'm just gonna open a can of whole peeled tomatoes.

This is my favorite brand.

If you watched the sauce episode from Making Perfect Pizza

Brad and I discovered these tomatoes and they are the best.

They're not from Italy,

the tomatoes are grown in California.

They're sweet, they have like a jammy flesh.

I would just eat them [can opener clacks]

straight out of the can, they're that good.

I'm gonna just dump [can opener clacks]

the whole thing into a bowl. [can clangs]

I've seen some people use scissors

and just go straight into the can.

I just feel like [can clangs]

it doesn't get the tomatoes properly crushed.

I just use my bare hands and I just go in

like the claw at the arcade.

[Interviewer] What a rip-off.

What a rip-off.

You're probably gonna use about a little less than half

of this, of the can. You're not gonna use all of it

'cause you're already gonna have additional liquid

with the water.

Our onion is golden,

it's softened. [spoon clangs]

I'm gonna just add the garlic. [spoon taps]

Give this a stir.

I like the onions,

they import like a little bit of sweetness

that kind of tames the acidity of the tomatoes.

I wouldn't skip on them and I definitely wouldn't skip

on the garlic.

[spoon clangs]

Again, these are all ingredients that,

[spoon clangs]

if you watch the YouTube channel,

I feel like you should have.

[spoon clangs]

So for here I'm gonna add these chickpeas.

This is just one canned of chickpeas drained, rinsed.

What's going on?

[chickpeas thud] [chickpeas sizzle]

[bowl clangs]

I'm not looking for kind of to get them crunchy or crispy

'cause that's not gonna happen

'cause we're adding additional liquid,

but just to kind of cook them out, brown them a little bit.

I'm also gonna add [spoon clangs]

one spring of rosemary.

I'm just gonna leave it whole,

I just kind of want the flavor.

Some of the leaves might fall apart and that's totally fine.

If you wanna chop it up, that's fine.

It's gonna be more of a concentrated flavor.

You'll see a few different variations

of pasta with chickpeas. [spoon clangs]

You'll see ones where they just leave the chickpeas whole.

You'll see ones where they scoop out some of the chickpeas

and they blend it and you'll have more of like silky broth.

Or you'll have something like this where I do crush up

the chickpeas a little bit,

to kind of get their starch going,

and that'll help thicken up the sauce

or the broth. [food sizzles]

You'll immediately smell

the rosemary. [spoon clangs]

I'm gonna add--

I want it a little spicy.

And it says quarter teaspoon, you can go up

to a half [spoon clangs]

if you like it really spicy.

You can go a pinch if you're sensitive.

[Interviewer] Are you spicy or sensitive, Andy?

I am incredibly sensitive

and being the most spicy at the same time. [laughs]

[spoon taps]

I'm just gonna smash a few of these chickpeas around.

Just some, again to get that starch going.

I'm gonna just taste one.

[spoon clangs]

You also, you want to cook the chickpeas out

to get any of that tinny flavor you have from the can.

I'm gonna season with a bit of salt

then I'm gonna add [spoon clangs]

about half of the tomatoes.

[tomatoes sizzle]

Now, I'm just gonna kind of let this simmer for a bit.

It's already thick but I just kind of want to get

that tinny flavor out and concentrate it a bit.

This will only take a few minutes

and then we'll add some water, bring it to a simmer,

add the pasta, let it cook until it's al dente.

Okay, you could see how the tomato has definitely thickened

to almost jammy.

[spoon clangs]

I'm gonna add four cups water.

[water splashes]

[spoon clangs] I'm gonna bring that to a simmer.

[cup clangs]

[spoon clangs]

While I'm waiting for that

to come to a simmer [bowl clangs]

I'm gonna talk about this pasta shape.

It's calamarata, which is kind of this tubular shape

that kind of resembles squid rings almost,

I think that's where the name comes from.

But any kind of short-cut pasta would work.

I wouldn't use a long pasta, [bowl clangs]

a bucatini or spaghetti here.

I think anything where the chickpeas

can get in there and hide a bit, I like.

I'm gonna season with a bit of salt.

Again, we don't have a separate pot of pasta water going.

This all happens in one pot.

And you have the chickpeas [spoon clangs]

and you have the pasta [spoon clangs]

and they're both going to release their starches.

So you're gonna get a broth that's a little more rich

and has slightly thickened and has a little more body

than you typically would get.

I'm just gonna give it a little bit of a taste.

[spoon bangs]

[Andy smacks]

It's a little spicy, you get the rosemary.

I think it needs a little bit more salt.

Okay, I'm adding six ounces of pasta.

That is definitely a lot less

than what we typically call for

but you have the chickpeas along with it,

so it definitely will be enough for four servings.

[pasta clangs]

I'm gonna dump that in.

[bowl clacks]

I'm gonna give it a stir and I'm just gonna let this cook,

definitely stirring here and there

because the pasta will want to sink to the bottom and stick,

and you just want to make sure that doesn't happen.

Whatever the package says for al dente,

it could take another minute or two longer

just because this isn't necessarily

100% just water and salt.

This has other things going on

so it will maybe take the pasta another minute or two

to cook to al dente.

[knife taps]

Okay, I'm just chopping some parsley.

[pan sizzles]

Scoop that in and then I'm gonna just grate

some Parmesan in the same bowl,

[cheese whooshes]

maybe like three tablespoons.

I'll top with a little bit more Parmesan, as well.

[grater clangs]

[hands slap] Okay, let's go.

Okay, so our pasta has cooked.

[bowl clangs]

I'm gonna just remove the rosemary sprig.

Some of the leaves have fallen, that's okay.

I'm gonna just stir this in.

[food sizzles]

[bowl clangs]

From here, I can just turn the heat off.

And you could see--

I mean I love it.

This is like

[spoon clacks]

adult, I'm not even going to say it's SpaghettiOs

'cause I've never had SpaghettiOs

and I don't want SpaghettiOs

but it does have like a very--

I love the look of it.

I love the shape of this pasta.

[spoon clacks]

Okay, let's remove it.

You could grate your Parmesan

but with this [knife clangs]

I kind of want like,

I don't know, I'm gonna go for [knife clangs]

like slices, almost.

[knife taps]

[knife clacks]

Kind of like that.

[cheese thuds]

You know, you could leave it like this,

you could crumble some of it up,

[knife clacks] but I want the cheese

to have some texture.

[pan clangs]

Okay, I'm gonna just taste this for salt.

[Andy smacks]

It's really flavorful.

When I tasted the broth before I added the pasta,

it was very thin and watery

and, I have to be honest, like a little sad,

but that 12-minute cooking time of the sauce reducing,

the tomato kind of coming forward,

the starch from the chickpeas and the pasta coming in,

you get this really nice texture from everything

and all the flavors [spoon scrapes]

have properly melded.

Rapo?

[Adam Rapoport] What's that?

[Andy] You wanna try?

[Adam] Yeah, what do you got?

I love how I asked Adam and other people are trying

to get in on this.

I put a tie on for the video.

Oh, good. [pot bangs]

I put on a shirt with no holes on for the video.

Do you have any forks?

I think this is a spoon, pasta e ceci.

Oh, pasta e ceci.

[Andy] Pasta e ceci.

That's gorgeous.

So is this like a soup or a pasta?

I think this is somewhere, yeah, this is, I think,

more of a soup.

It falls under the same category as pasta e fagioli,

same with pasta e lenticchie,

but this is my favorite one, I think.

Very few ingredients.

Love the rosemary.

Love the rosemary.

You don't bite into it but you get the flavor.

And it still tastes like creamy but it's not pureed.

Yeah, [spoon clangs]

a lot of people they'll puree like half the chickpeas

but I find that if you just smash the chickpeas a bit

it'll release the starch and will thicken the sauce.

[spoon clangs]

And the shape is nice.

Mm, hot.

That's what I want on a Monday night

when I'm trying to be healthy

and start my week off [spoon clangs]

meatless Monday but I still want something

that's like satisfying.

Mm-hmm, yet I think it hits the spot.

[hands clap]

Thank you.

Approval [snaps] from the head man in charge.

Cool. [spoon clangs]

I love this pasta shape [spoon clangs]

so much. I know, right.

Light but hearty at the same time.

Light but hearty, I'm very tempted, whenever I make it,

to add like a knob of butter,

which I think would be welcomed,

but instead I just stirred in some cheese

and then I topped with more cheese.

No, it's really tasty.

I like the little bit of heat.

I'm doing a double dip.

I really like this pasta shape.

What's it called again? Faint rosemary.

Calamarata.

Oh, 'cause it looks like calamari. [spoon clangs]

[fingers snap]

The tubular rings. You know what it needs?

A few rings of calamari in there, whoa,

you wouldn't know I think that

would be delicious. what would happen.

That would be really nice.

[spoon taps]

Approved?

J'approve.

J'approve.

That's it, pasta e ceci.

Hopefully one day, I'll be able to do pasta e lenticchie

but for now, this is my favorite

pasta dish from cucina povera.

[air clicks]

That's a tight bulb.

[garlic snaps]

That's a good thing.

Everybody just looked at me when I said that.

[Interviewer] A tight bulb and you should have

sticky fingers when you handle it.

Yes, exactly.