Three Layer Cake

When I studied in Florence, lunch was served in a small dining room where our classes were held.  The cook, Giovanna, was the best along the Arno.  Hard to believe, but she rivals my trusted cooking confident Gianna in her ability to make the best food ever.  Of course to an American, any Italian food is “so wonderful”, but the real litmus test is the palate of an older Italian who really knows what good cooking is.  Giovanna passed this test with flying colors.   Her husband, Settimo, helped out around the Center.  To learn Italian, I memorized passages from a book called Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca about a mischievous little boy.  I went to the lunch room early each day, pulled up a chair and recounted the passages to Sesto as he prepared the kitchen and the tables.  It took him a few days to realize that these weren’t real life encounters, but he enjoyed the updates on little Gian Burrasca  nonetheless.

During these story telling sessions, I also got to ask a bit of Settimo and Giovanna about how the dishes were prepared.  The pasta e ceci that Giovanna made is a dish which I can still taste at a moment’s recall.  I remember being so amazed that such simple ingredients could produce such a symphony of flavors.  (I hate it when people use these expressions, but that’s really what it was!)  I wasn’t in to writing down recipes then, but I tried my best to recreate the dish from memory.

Pasta e Ceci

• 200g of short (shape) pasta or other quick-cooking (like maltagliati or ditalini)
• 200g chick peas (soak for at least 12 hours, or use canned)
• 200g crushed tomatoes
• handful of fresh rosemary, chopped
• one cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste 

In a large pot boil the chick peas with the bay leaves and some rosemary, until soft, salting only at the end.  Remove the bay leaves from the bean pot, but do not discard the cooking water.  In a separate pot, sauté garlic and rosemary in olive oil.  Add tomatoes and cook for ten minutes.  Add beans, pasta, and three cups of the cooking water from the beans.  After the pasta has cooked, adjust the thickness of the soup with more liquid from the beans.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan, if you like. 
 

Note:  You should adjust the proportions of pasta and chickpeas to personal taste.  There are versions of this soup that are so thick a spoon can stand up straight in it.  This isn’t one of those versions, but this is intended to be thicker than a simple soup.  If you can get an onion fine enough so that you don’t feel the pieces when you eat the soup, you can also try sautéing half of a white onion with the garlic and rosemary.