Chickpea Pasta in 8 Steps

The inspiration behind some of the food I cook, comes from what I have in the pantry, and refrigerator. I was craving a saucy-tomatoey pasta, so I decided to make use of the frozen chickpeas that I had, and came up with this Moroccan-inspired pasta. The starting point, in terms of spices, came from the delicious combination of chickpeas and cumin. I love mushrooms, oregano, and chili flakes in my pasta so decided to include them in this very delicious and quick recipe. Please do give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Ingredients (in the order they are used):

For the pasta:
6 ounce of pasta (I am using organic whole grain pasta)
6 cups of water for boiling

For the sauce:
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 onion (thinly sliced)
2 cloves of garlic (or 1 teaspoon of garlic powder)
1 teaspoon of cumin powder
1/8 teaspoon of chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
1/4 teaspoon of oregano
1/4 teaspoon of zaatar (is a Middle Eastern spice blend of thyme and sesame seed, available at Whole Foods)
1/4 teaspoon of sumac (is a Middle Eastern spice, has a lemony flavor)
1 cup of sliced mushrooms (I am using crimini mushrooms)
2 large tomatoes
1 cup of pasta sauce (I LOVE Trader Joe's organic tomato basil marinara sauce)
1 cup of cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons of parmesan reggiano (We get our cheese from Sprouts)

So, let's get started. I have put the steps for the sauce in numerical order, and alphabetized the steps for cooking the pasta.

Step 1: In a heated skillet, on high flame, add olive oil and thinly sliced onions.

Step A: In a pot add 6 cups of water and bring it to a boil.

Step B: Once the water is boiling, add the pasta, and set the timer for 6 minutes. We want the pasta to be slightly undercooked, as we want it to finish cooking in the skillet, so it can absorb the delicious flavor of the sauce.

Step 2: When the onions turn translucent add all of the spices, and stir.

Step 3: Add the sliced mushrooms, and cook until mushrooms have shrunk a little.

Step C: Taste the pasta for doneness.

Step 4: When the mushrooms have decreased in size and have a golden hue, add the tomatoes. You want to cook the tomatoes until their skin looks blistered.

As shown here:

Step 5: Add the sauce. Cover the pot and let it cook on medium heat.

Step D: After about 6 minutes when the pasta is al dente, turn off the stove, and leave the pasta as is.

Step 6: When the pasta sauce has come to a boil add 1 cup of chickpeas. Cover and cook on medium heat for another two minutes.

The sauce should be looking like this before you move onto the next step.

Step 7: Add the cooked pasta, and one cup of pasta water into the skillet.

Cover and cook on high flame. At this point the goal is to reduce the sauce to your desired thickness.

Step 8: Check for salt before adding the cheese.

Continue cooking.

I like my pasta with a lot of sauce, so I turned off the stove when it started to look like this. To prevent pasta from drying out, it's always good to leave a little extra sauce in the pot. 

Delicious pasta is ready.