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Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary
![Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/10/26/dining/aw-creamy-chickpea-pasta/aw-creamy-chickpea-pasta-articleLarge-v2.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- ¼cup olive oil
- 1(14-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish
- ½teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or ¼ to ½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
- Black pepper
- 1large shallot, finely chopped
- 2garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1cup heavy cream
- 1(6-ounce) bag baby spinach
- 12ounces spaghetti or bucatini
- ½cup finely grated Parmesan
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high.
- Step 2
In a wide, deep skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the chickpeas, rosemary and Aleppo pepper, if using. Season generously with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until chickpeas start to caramelize at their edges and pop, 5 to 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer about half the chickpeas to a bowl. Reserve for garnish.
- Step 3
Reduce the heat to medium, add the shallots and garlic to the skillet, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the heavy cream and cook until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the spinach and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Step 4
Add the pasta to the boiling water and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the pasta until a couple minutes short of al dente according to package instructions, about 5 minutes. Do not drain the pasta, but using tongs, transfer the pasta directly from the pot to the spinach and cream sauce. Add 1 cup pasta cooking water and the Parmesan, and cook over medium-high, stirring vigorously with the tongs, until the sauce is thickened and the noodles are al dente, about 2 minutes. Add a splash of pasta water to loosen sauce, if needed.
- Step 5
Transfer to bowls, and top with reserved chickpeas, rosemary and black pepper. Serve immediately, with lemon wedges for squeezing on top.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Instead of adding heavy cream (Italians would never dream of using it) purée half the chick peas into a smooth sauce and voila you get vey creamy sauce. Light and delicious M
Why do people post to complain about calorie counts? The NYT posts a variety of recipes, if this one is too caloric, pick another one or make adjustments. This isn’t a site exclusively devoted to low calorie eating and not everyone is on a diet. This recipe looks great!
Forget about the high fat content from CREAM...use FAT FREE evaporated milk instead...I would defy anyone to know the difference!
What is behind the rise of pasta recipes that call for 12 oz of pasta? Pasta comes in 1lb boxes. It’s frustrating to see this approach in an increasing number of nytimes recipes.
Really good! but OVERLY COMPLICATED STEPS! As written you're trying to cook pasta, thicken sauce and soften chickpeas at once. Instead, do pasta and sauce separately, perhaps like this: 1) Set water to boil 2) Cook Chickpeas as directed; after removing half, mash the rest of them and add the cream and spinach 3) Cook pasta to completion; add 1C pasta water to sauce. 4) Finish sauce to your liking 5) combine and serve
Keep the cream and the fat. Count net carbs, never calories. Robbing this dish of its heavy cream is like kissing through a screen door.
Added fennel seeds and doubled the spinach. Family of five all 3 kids asked for seconds which makes this a winner in my book. It was delicious!
My husband made it last night and we really enjoyed it. But, being constitutionally incapable of leaving a recipe untweaked, we made the following changes: Substitute good whole milk ricotta for the cream. Fewer calories, more flavor, still creamy enough for us. Pureeing the ricotta in a blender would help. Substitute thyme for rosemary, upping the thyme. More spinach. Either cut back on the salt, or omit pasta water. Too salty! Toast pine nuts and fresh sage leaves in olive oil as garnish.
I followed the directions exactly and learned a lesson. DO NOT COOK THE PARMESAN IN THE SAUCE! It stuck fast to the pan and made for a very tedious cleanup. Also, although it tasted pretty good, and was pretty on the plate, it was awkward to eat. The bucatini or spaghetti calls for winding on to a fork, but the chick peas go flying. Shells would work better--you can tuck the peas into them and get both in one bite.
If you use plain, whole milk yogurt you will get a similar outcome, with a slight tartness that is very satisfying.
This recipe came out incredible and I made it completely vegan, it was so easy! Instead of the heavy cream soak raw cashews in water for a few hours then blend them with half a can of chickpeas and water. The texture was perfect. Used a tiny bit of vegetable broth right before adding the spinach to loosen it up a bit. Also made vegan Parmesan by mincing garlic and blending with 1/2 cup raw cashews (unsoaked)2 tbsp nutritional yeast and some salt. Seriously delectable!
I took Nancy’s advice and puréed half the chickpeas with only 1/4c cream and some extra pasta water. Worked perfectly. Also use baby kale rather than spinach b/c that’s what we had. Whole family loved it. Also agree with the 12oz vs 16oz issue with dry pasta. It’s odd not to have the proportions just be for a pound of pasta.
This was a good recipe - a nice variation on Cacio e Pepe. My one suggestion would be to up the ratio of chick peas to pasta. The chick peas seemed lost when I followed the recipe. Next time I might try 2 cans chick peas and 8 oz pasta.
Made this exactly as-written EXCEPT used Banza Chickpea Spaghetti in place of regular flour-based pasta: big boost in fiber and protein, plus the chickpea pasta-- a obvious no-brainer for this recipe-- adds interesting umami notes in contrast with traditional pasta which, let's face it, just sits there as a sauce-conveyor. :-) {FYI Banda chickpea pasta also comes in penne, shells, and fusilli shapes}
I made this with geek yogurt instead of cream and I regretted it. The yogurt curdled a bit and it never got the creamy texture I was hoping for.
I made this exactly as written. I used the red pepper flakes option because I don't know what Aleppo pepper is, and I'm pretty sure I can't get it in Backwoods USA, where I live. This came out perfectly and was delicious and satisfying as-is. Not sure why umbrage is being taken with the heavy cream in the name of Italian authenticity; nowhere does Alexa claim that this is supposed to be an authentic Italian dish. If you don't like this recipe, go find another. This database is enormous.
But it's the only recipe called "creamy chickpea pasta". And it's the first option in the list using quote in the keyword search. And 1 cup heavy cream (not half and half which is cooking cream y'know) for 4 people is indulgent! It's dinner, not dessert "a treat". I wouldn't remove it completely (adding pasta water and/or chickpea liquid is creamy but not the same), but less is more y'know
Just made this again and it definitely deserves to stay in my “repeatable” file. I made it simpler by first sautéing the chickpeas, leaving them in the pan and adding the garlic and shallot, and then the kale (bc it needs time to soften…if it were spinach I would have added it after the cream), and then the cream. I used one can and chickpea and 13 oz of whole wheat pasta and it makes 3 meals.
This was fantastic, will make again! I used substitutions as others have commented. I used silken tofu instead of heavy cream and nutritional yeast instead of parmesan and flavored accordingly. This could easily accommodate more veggies if desired (mushrooms, asparagus, etc.). Love garbanzo beans, so I increased to about 1 1/2 cans. I also took the advice of another commenter and used fusili pasta rather than spaghetti. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Added seared chicken, heavily seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Made again, great weekend dish. No rosemary, full 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 handful of spinach, 1 large shallot, 3 cloves of garlic. Brought cream sauce to boil then added 2 Tbsp miso paste and mixed in. Filling spaghetti dinner
I just made this tonight. I didn't have cream so I substituted sour cream. I also was a little short on Parmesan so I added shredded mozzarella. I threw in some fresh basil at the end. It was ymuy!
Really enjoyed the dish! I made it with what I had which was slightly different. Crème fraiche instead of cream, spring onions and garlic scapes instead of shallot and garlic. All else was the same and it was great!
Double the spinach!!!
Use 2 cans of chick peas Do not drain the chick peas - pour in all the liquid. As beans cook, take some out for garnish and then use use a potato masher to mash some of the ones left in the pot to make the sauce. No heavy cream or milk needed. A splash more water may be needed.
Agree with another commenter that this would be better with TWO cans of chick peas, rather than one.
This turned out beautifully. I happened to have a fennel bulb that needed to be used so I halved and thinly sliced a proportionate amount (basically keeping the quantity in line with the amount of chickpeas and spinach going in), then added it after the first five minutes of cooking the chickpeas. I think I could’ve added another half a cup of chickpeas and slightly more fennel and spinach just to up the vegetable and protein intake and it would’ve still been awesome .
There are a few pasta recipes on here with chickpeas and spinach which I combine as works for me each time. My favorite combination is using diced tomatoes instead of cream and adding thyme and cumin. So not really this recipe, but just adding this note to say making pasta with spinach and chickpeas is very versatile and tasty!
used less pasta than recipe. really delicious. chopped some parsley too.
Use plain, whole milk yogurt instead of cream.
Rather than a full cup. I used 1/2 cup of cream and could have used 1/3rd. Mash the chickpeas for creaminess and add some of the liquid from the canned chickpeas to supplement. Used lentil pasta for extra protein and less carb. This will def be a staple in my house. It was absolutely fab!
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