Another very simple but tasty and healthy recipe with what is a simple and poor ingredient: the grass pea.

I already wrote a couple of posts about it lately (HERE and HERE), this time is a recipe using a typical pasta type from southern Italy, more precisely from Molise region, but also Puglia and Basilicata: the cavatelli.

The best is if you prepare cavatelli home made, with durum flour. In this case I bought them.

Let’s see.

INGREDIENTS (2 people):

• 200 g of cavatelli pasta
• 140 g of grass peas
• 200 g tomato pulp
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove garlic
• extra virgin olive oil
• bay leaf
• 1 chili
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

1. First of all put the grass peas in a bowl with cold water, and let it soak for at least 8 hours.
2. After this time throw away the soaking water and put the grass peas in a pot with about 1 liter cold water, the clove of garlic and the bay leaf, and start to boil. From the moment the water starts to boil count about 40 minutes (I used grass peas from Serra de’ Conti, but is some cases it could take longer, read the package). Season with salt just after the first 30 minutes.
3. After 20-30 minutes that the grass peas are boiling, take another pot and heat a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, then add the onion cut very small and let it simmer until the onion is soft. Then add the chili and the tomato pulp, add a ladle of boiling water from the grass peas and let it simmer some minutes. Start boiling the water for the pasta in another pot.
4. When they are ready drain the grass peas (remove the garlic and the bay leaf but keep their boiling water) and add them to the tomatoes. Let them cook at minimum heat. Add some of their water if needed.
5. Boil the pasta in salted water, and when it’s ready drain it and add it to the grass peas.
6. Mix well together, add some freshly grated Pecorino cheese if you would like, a drizzle of fresh extra virgin olive oil, and serve it 🙂