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Ingredients
- Serves 4 people
150 g of dried black or regular chickpeas (soaked overnight)
1 aubergine
1 courgette
1 onion
1 tbsp olive oil
½ lemon
Aubergine & Black Chickpea Orecchiette
There are a few techniques to making these little buggers. It’s one of my favourite pasta shapes, but weirdly tricky to master. I don’t want that to put you off –I’ve seen both 5-year-olds and 100-year-olds rattling it out in Italy very easily! Approach it with a Zen-like mind and I promise you’ll get into the rhythm soon enough.
- Hard
- 40 min
- 20 min
- 10 min
- 4 steps
- 6 Ingredients
- Hard
- 4 steps
- 6 Ingredients
- 40 min
- 20 min
- 10 min
Instructions
-
Knead dough
- Pile the flour on to a clean surface and make a well in the middle. Gradually add 200ml of warm water, using a fork to bring the flour in from the outside until it forms a dough. Knead on a flour-dusted surface, switching between fast and slow kneading, for 10 minutes, or until smooth and firm.
- Cut the dough into four so you can work with it a quarter at a time. Cover the rest with a clean damp tea towel while you work, to stop it drying out.
- Roll your first quarter into a long sausage shape about 1cm in diameter, then cut it into 1cm nuggets. Keep your surface well dusted with flour.
-
Make orecchiette
- Now, method number one: starting at the edge furthest away from you, drag a blunt eating knife towards you over a nugget of dough, so it curls round andover the knife.
- Gently pull the dough off the knife, push your thumb inside and turn it inside out. Repeat, and you’ll get it after a while.
- Method number two requires you to stick your thumb into the centre of a nugget (roll it into a ball first if you want to be more precise), rotate your thumb around to create a round disc, then pick the disc up and hold it between your thumb and forefinger, pulling it gently over your forefinger to make a similarly effective little ear.
- Transfer to a floured tray as you go.
-
Cook aubergine and courgette
- Trim the aubergine and courgette and chop into 2cm dice, then peel and finely slice the onion.
- Cook the veg in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat with the olive oil for 15 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally.
-
Make sauce
- Drain the chickpeas, reserving the liquor.
- Stir the chickpeas into the veg pan with the juice of 1⁄2 a lemon, loosening with a good splash of reserved liquor.
- Cook over a low heat for 8 more minutes, then taste and season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper.
- Meanwhile, cook your fresh orecchiette in boiling salted water for 4 minutes (or cook 300g of dried orecchiette according to the packet instructions).
Plate and Serve!
Scoop the pasta into the sauce and toss together, loosening with pasta cooking water, if needed, then tuck in.
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