Ciceri e Tria from Flavors of Puglia

I like these stripped down dishes, "cocina povera", arising out of the food of the poor. This is from Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, with chick peas, and a pasta made with hard semolina but no eggs. Interestingly, a portion of the pasta is fried, and together, the dish packs an intriguing textural punch.

Crunchy fried pasta, chickpeas, and normal semolina pasta textures

Irene thought this was a bit bland, but I rather liked it. Her biggest complaint was the lack of flavor in the pasta, but adding an egg like rich northerners do would be against tradition. I'd like to add some brightness and bump up the flavor contrast with other Puglian ingredients, perhaps capers (fried!) or lemon zest.

Adapted from Flavors of Puglia by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, serves 2 people.

Ingredients

1 C     Chick Peas, dry (about 3/8 pound)
1 small Onion, quartered, root removed
1 stalk Celery
1 leaf  Bay Laurel
1 Tbs   Salt (or to taste)
grinds  Black Pepper

1/3 C   Water, warm
1 tsp   Salt
1 C     Semolina (our was fine, but more coarse than typical flour)

1-2 C   Olive Oil for frying
2 clove Garlic, peeled and crushed lightly
1 small Dried Chili Pepper

Procedure

Hydrate the Chickpeas overnight.

Cover Chickpeas with about an inch of water and cook covered with Onion, Celery, Bay Leaf, Salt and Pepper for about 2 hours, until very tender; if the water drops below about 1/2 inch above the chickpeas, add more boiling water.

Simmer chickpeas covered, with onion, bay, celery

Meanwhile, make the pasta:
Dissolve the tsp Salt in the 1/3 C Water, then make a dough with it and the Semolina in a food processor.
Knead to bring together, then wrap in film and rest in the fridge an hour to hydrate.
Roll it out to #5 or #6 on an Atlas machine.
Cut it into fettucini or -- better -- 1/2 inch strips.
Lay on kitchen towel to dry while the beans cook.

Heat the Olive Oil to 350F with the Chili and Garlic.
When the Garlic turns brown remove it and the Chili; mince both and add to the Chickpea pot for flavor.
Cut 1/3 of the pasta into bits about 2-inch long and fry until golden, about 5 minutes; drain on paper towels.

Flavor the oil with garlic, chili; remove when garlic browns

Fry 1/3 of the pasta, cut into strips

While that pasta fries, cook the rest:
Add the remaining 2/3 pasta to the Chickpea pot and cook until toothsome but tender enough, about 5 minutes.
The chickpeas and pasta should throw off some starch to thicken the cooking water, and I was aiming to have little broth, just a starchy sauce-like consistency at the end.

Cook 2/3 pasta in the chickpea water, it will release starch

Serve in heated bowls, topping with the crunchy fried pasta.
Garnish with a lashing of the hot flavorful Olive Oil.

I made it again, this time frying some large dry capers and some small wet ones, and grating some lemon zest as a garnish; it made for a more interesting dish, and I'd do it again.

With fried capers and lemon zest