Lagane and chickpeas pasta: italian recipe

“Lagane” and chickpeas pasta is a traditional dish spread in at least 3 regions: Calabria, Campania and Basilicata. The dish has its roots in ancient Rome, the term lagane from the Greek laganon and the roman laganum means strips and they are probably the first dry pasta in history. It is documented that the Latin poet Orazio in his Satire described a dish based on chickpeas, leeks and lagane, for which we are facing a dish with a plausible history of at least 2500 years.

In Calabria, it is consumed on special occasions as during the day of St. Joseph in which traditionally dishes of lagane and chickpeas were brought to the homes of the neediest. Here too we are talking about a tradition that derives from the pagan rituals of agrarian purifications, later integrated into the groove of Christian customs.

Today it is increasingly rare that they are prepared by mixing water and flour and soaking the dried chickpeas the day before. Packaged products are used which, if chosen with care, are excellent and the final effect is very similar to the slow and traditional dish. In fact, pasta lagane and chickpeas is a very simple pasta but traditional preparation would require a lot of time. Time and patience that today is always difficult to find. However, if we want to save time and enjoy a dish so beautiful and simple without stress, we can do it using ready-made lagane produced in a traditional way and boiled chickpeas. Following our recipe we can prepare a lagane and chickpeas in 20 minutes.

Ingredients for 4 people

- 500 gr of lagane

-1 garlic

-1 chili pepper

-1 bay leaf

- 250 gr of boiled chickpeas

- 1 peeled tomato

- olive oil

- salt

Preparation

Brown in a 100g of olive oil a clove of garlic and chili pepper. The golden garlic in large pieces can be easily eliminated at the end of cooking if someone does not like it.

Add the chickpeas and the bay leaf that gives greater digestibility to the dish, add the peeled tomato and chop it with a ladle in the pan.

Add salt and add the lagane “al dente” with a little cooking water.

Stir-fry over high heat for a couple of minutes to flavor everything. Serve and leave to cool for at least a couple of minutes to allow the dish to get even more flavor. Enjoy your meal!