Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary

- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- ¼cup olive oil
- 1(14-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish
- ½teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or ¼ to ½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
- Black pepper
- 1large shallot, finely chopped
- 2garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1cup heavy cream
- 1(6-ounce) bag baby spinach
- 12ounces spaghetti or bucatini
- ½cup finely grated Parmesan
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high.
- Step 2
In a wide, deep skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the chickpeas, rosemary and Aleppo pepper, if using. Season generously with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until chickpeas start to caramelize at their edges and pop, 5 to 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer about half the chickpeas to a bowl. Reserve for garnish.
- Step 3
Reduce the heat to medium, add the shallots and garlic to the skillet, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the heavy cream and cook until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the spinach and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Step 4
Add the pasta to the boiling water and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the pasta until a couple minutes short of al dente according to package instructions, about 5 minutes. Do not drain the pasta, but using tongs, transfer the pasta directly from the pot to the spinach and cream sauce. Add 1 cup pasta cooking water and the Parmesan, and cook over medium-high, stirring vigorously with the tongs, until the sauce is thickened and the noodles are al dente, about 2 minutes. Add a splash of pasta water to loosen sauce, if needed.
- Step 5
Transfer to bowls, and top with reserved chickpeas, rosemary and black pepper. Serve immediately, with lemon wedges for squeezing on top.
Private Notes
Comments
Instead of adding heavy cream (Italians would never dream of using it) purée half the chick peas into a smooth sauce and voila you get vey creamy sauce. Light and delicious M
What is behind the rise of pasta recipes that call for 12 oz of pasta? Pasta comes in 1lb boxes. It’s frustrating to see this approach in an increasing number of nytimes recipes.
Forget about the high fat content from CREAM...use FAT FREE evaporated milk instead...I would defy anyone to know the difference!
I used about 1.5x the ingredients since pasta I purchase comes in 1 pound (16 ounce) packages. I preferred to both squeeze lemon juice and add lemon zest toward the end of cooking right before transferring pasts to spinach & creamy sauce. I found a more important step to be "top with RESERVED chickpeas" and other reserved ingredients. Doing this helps blend it all in, and topping with reserves upon serving avoids having most of the chickpeas from annoying falling to the bottom of your dish.
I made it according to the recipe with bucatini, whivh was very good. I subbed home made garbanzos and blended some for the cream. This may have affected the recipe because it was just meh, even though the peas were flavorful. I was disappointed.
Had high hopes for this but found it incredibly bland