This is Henry’s favorite pasta that I make. It started, way back, when I wanted to make a good whole wheat pasta for a class. A bit of online research at the time led me to a Mario Batali recipe, which this is based on, his version of langanelli con i ceci. The pasta, langanelli, is a traditional one from central/southern Italy, pretty much from Lazio (Rome) on south. It goes by a variety of names, and the shapes vary somewhat – this particular name is from Lazio. Traditionally, it’s made from a “strong flour” – somewhat coarse, i.e., what I was looking for, a whole wheat pasta. Mario’s version cuts it into, more or less, trapezoidal shapes, but versions appear that range from the width of tagliatelle on up to really wide pappardelle, sometimes even as wide as lasagna noodles – the one more defining character being that they’re cut by hand, so they should be somewhat irregular. Ceci are chickpeas.

Now, this particular time, I made them slightly more regular, almost like straighforward pappardelle, though the widths vary a fair amount. They also ended up shorter, as what I did was after they’d dried for a couple of hours, I used a pasta cutter and just ran it along the top of the fold-over, so that they fell away half the length, maybe, in general, about 4-5″ long, with widths varying from about 2/3 of an inch to an inch. The dough is 2 cups coarse whole wheat flour, with 2 tsp of pure gluten added to help with elasticity (Mario’s version blends whole wheat flour and all purpose flour to accomplish the same), 1 egg, 1 Tb olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and just enough water to bring it all together into a smooth dough.

Pretty simple mise en place – 1 can of chickpeas, a couple of stalks of chopped celery and 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and a couple of crushed pepperoncino (dried Italian chilies), and some chopped parsley. Salt and pepper. Not shown, some grated cheese (if you want to, we sometimes do, sometimes don’t).

Saute the onions and celery for a couple of minutes in olive oil with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Add in the garlic and crushed chili and saute until the onion and celery are translucent.

Add in the chickpeas, don’t drain them, the liquid they’re packed in adds to the dish. Cook about another five minutes. At this point, drop the pasta into boiling salted water. (If you’re using dried whole wheat pasta rather than making fresh, drop it in the water at the point of the previous step.)

Add the grated cheese (I used pecorino romano) and parsley and toss to combine well.

Add a ladleful or two of the boiling pasta water, which now has the dissolved starch from the pasta that’s cooking, as well as the dissolved salt that was in it from the start. This is why I only add a pinch or so of salt at the beginning, because the water adds a bit of saltiness. Toss, or stir well, to emulsify, it should come together almost like a creamy texture. Taste and adjust the salt if need be (probably not).

Scoop the pasta out of the boiling water with a slotted scoop, let most but not all of the water drain off and put it right into the pan, a splash of good olive oil, and toss well to coat. If it looks a little dry, add a little more of the pasta cooking water.

And, we’re back to our first pic, my version of langanelli con i ceci.