Chickpea soup with anchovies

Method

1. Boil the pre-soaked chickpeas for 2 hours (or less, depending on the size of the chickpeas) in water with a sprig of rosemary, laurel and skinned garlic.
2. Once cooked, remove the herbs, season to taste with salt and leave to cool.
3. Take 2/3 of the chickpeas and blend them with their boiling water, adding some more hot water or vegetable broth until the correct thickness is obtained.
4. In a small pan warm up half a glass of oil with rosemary, 1 sliced clove of garlic and orange skin cut 'à julienne'.
5. When you start to smell a sweet flavour, turn off the heat and leave to cool.
6. Pour the oil you have created on 8 chopped anchovies and leave to marinate.
7. Blend the other 4 anchovies in 2 spoonfuls of oil and add the mixture to the chickpea cream together with the unblended chickpeas.
8. Heat gently and adjust with salt and pepper to your own taste.
9. Serve garnishing each dish with the marinated anchovies and their oil.

Chef's tip

If you want to make this dish even more hearty, you can add some (cooked) short pasta a few minutes before serving it. You will love it!

Serving suggestion

Serve as an entrée - as the Germans do! - or as an all-in-one course, accompanied by a vegetable- or fish-based dish.

Wine selection

Pinot noir
Barbera
Chianti

Family tip

If you'd rather not find anchovies bits in your soup, replace the fillets with the anchovy paste.

Dish history

A chickpea soup is a great first dish, nourishing and tasty, ideal especially during cold winter days (but you can enjoy it in summer too!). This healthy soup is quite easy to cook and can be modified in many ways according to personal tastes. You can prepare it with sage, add hot chili peppers or freshly ground black pepper, make it exotic with some curry.. or, as we suggest in this recipe, give it a special twist by adding anchovies and home-made flavoured extra virgin olive oil! Try it out, the result will surprise you!