Here it is another very good and healthy legume soup: I love legumes 🙂

You can find many recipes about chickpeas soups (for example in Tuscany there is a similar recipe but they add fresh tagliolini pasta too), but I really like this one, with the extra flavor given by the rosemary which fits very well with the chickpeas.

This is one of my favorite dinner recipes. Simple and perfect.

Let’s see how to make it.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• 300 g dry chickpeas (they will double the weight)
• 1-1,5 liters of vegetable stock
• extra virgin olive oil, 4-5 tablespoons
• 30 g of guanciale/pancetta/lardo
• fresh rosemary, 1 or 2 sprigs
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 spoon of triple tomato concentrate
• a couple of Parmigiano Reggiano rinds
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

1. First of all you have to put the dried chickpeas in a bowl with abundant water, 12 hours at least, but also up to 24. You can do it during the night. They will double their weight about. Prepare also the vegetable stock if you don’t have it already.
2. Take a pot/cocotte and heat the extra virgin olive oil together with the guanciale (or the lardo or the pancetta): I used guanciale, and as for the lardo I reduced it to a cream by hitting it multiple times with a big knife. When the fats are hot add a sprig of rosemary too, so it will release already its flavors, and also the clove of garlic.
3. When the garlic gets a golden color remove it, remove also the rosemary and add all the chickpeas. Mix well for some seconds and then add the triple tomato concentrate diluted in a ladle of vegetable stock, and add also enough vegetable stock to cover completely the chickpeas. Add also the Parmigiano Reggiano rinds and the previous rosemary sprig (or a new one, better if in a kitchen gauze so you can remove it easily after), and from the moment you reach the boil set the heat at the minimum and let it simmer slowly until the chickpeas are ready, it will take between 2 and 3 hours, depending on how old are the chickpeas and how long they stayed in water. In the first minutes there will be a foam coming on the surface, remove it with a skimmer/perforated spoon.
4. If needed add some hot vegetable stock sometimes while boiling.
5. When the chickpeas are cooked (you have to control) remove the rosemary, then take about 1/4 of them and some liquid and reduce to a cream using an immersion blender. Then put this cream back in the pot/cocotte and mix well with everything, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and let it cook for some more minutes.
6. Serve it in your dish, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and enjoy with some good bread 🙂

PS: as for other similar recipes, if you remove the lardo/pancetta/guanciale and the Parmigiano Reggiano rinds then it can be also a vegan/vegetarian dish, but less tasty.

And if something remains it’s good also for the day after 🙂