In introducing a chickpea based dessert in The Art of Eating Well, Artusi cautions his readers to buy their chickpeas dry and soak them at home, because the vendors of the time frequently used the same water to soak the salt out of baccalà. As does this recipe, which will provide a tasty soup and the wherewithal for the second course, namely some baccalà. This recipe is from Puglia, and has you also use home made pasta, cut into strips about a quarter-inch wide.
Prep Time: 48 hours,
Cook Time: 2 hours,
Ingredients:
- 5 cups (600 g) flour (if you're making the pasta from scratch)
- 10 ounces (300 g) chickpeas
- 6 chunks baccalà (figure 1 1/2 pounds, about 700 g)
- A medium bunch parsley, minced
- Olive oil
- 1 1/2 pounds (700 g) blanched, peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
- Salt
Preparation:
Begin by setting the baccalà and the chickpeas to soak 48 hours before you plan to cook the dish. The day you'll be cooking, if you're making the pasta do so, cut it into strips, and let them dry for a few hours.Drain the chickpeas and cook them in abundant, lightly salted water for about three hours. About 90 minutes into the cooking time, take a second casserole and sauté the garlic with the parsley; when the cloves turn straw yellow add the tomatoes and the fish, and simmer, adding boiling water if necessary to keep things from drying out (it shouldn't be).
A short time before everything is done cook the pasta in abundant salted water; while it's cooking remove the baccalà from the pot to a platter and set it aside to serve as a second course (say, with a tossed salad). Drain the chickpeas. Drain the pasta, put it in a bowl, and combine it with the chickpeas and the sauce the baccalà cooked in. Serve. The wine? A white; Botromagno's Gravina comes to mind.
