pasta salad with tomatoes and chickpeas

Insalata di pasta con ceci e pomodori

Pasta salad with tomatoes and chickpeas Our original home cooking

This pasta salad (insalata di pasta) made with tomatoes and chickpeas is tasty and healthy for its ingredients. It's a summer dish. Its ingredients are: pasta, extra virgin olive oil, fresh aromatic herbs (chives, bay leaves and basil), raw tomatoes and chickpeas. Here's the recipe, one of our exclusive creation!

Authentic Italian recipe - — Pasta salad (insalata di pasta) with tomatoes and chickpeas

yeld for 2

160 g (5 1/2oz) short pasta
100 g (3 1/2oz) dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
500 g (1lb and 1 1/2oz) ripe but firm tomatoes
Little bunch of fresh chives
Some leaves fresh basil
1 dried bay leaf
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Time:
preparation: 20 minutes
plus chickpea soaking
cooking: 90 minutes
total: 100 minutes
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: 545 (kCal) 28 % GDA (*) - 2280 (kJ)
Protein: 19.6 (g) 40 % GDA
Total fat: 14.5 (g) 21 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 89.4 (g) 34 % GDA
Sugars: 13.4 (g) 15 % GDA

The recipe of pasta salad with chickpeas and tomatoes

The evening before: rehydrate the chickpeas. Soak the dried chickpeas overnight using cold water.

The day after: cook the chickpeas. Rinse the chickpeas, transfer them into a pan, cover with abundant cold water and bring to the boil. At this point lower the flame and keep on cooking for an hour or until tender.
Be careful the chickpeas are always covered with water. Therefore add other boiling water only if necessary.
Drain the chickpeas very well and put apart. You have to season with salt only in a second time.

Prepare the tomatoes and chives. Peel the tomatoes, remove their seeds and chop.
Transfer the tomatoes into a large bowl together with chickpeas.
Clean, wash and chop the chives. Add to the other ingredients.
Add the olive oil too. Season to taste with salt. Stir and put apart.

Cook the pasta. Cook the pasta al dente stage in abundant salt water following the directions on the package or our instructions.
Drain the pasta and run under cold water in order to stop cooking, drain again.

The last step. Transfer the pasta into the bowl and stir with delicacy.
Your dish is ready.
Wait for an hour before serving for a better taste.

Note

- Let's talk about the tomatoes. What's the right way to peel them? Read more on our blog ...
- For a quicker recipe: use canned chickpeas (1 400 g - 14 1/4 oz can chickpeas)
- In the photo you can see we use wholemeal pasta for an healthy daily diet.
- Remember to use olive oil after cooking to preserve its extraordinary nutritive value as we suggest in the recipe description.
- You have the best result with organic ingredients, really!
- Everyone will like it included vegan people.
- We suggest the pasta salad version made with canned chickpeas for your daily menu. It's simple-to-do, healthy and quick. But we have to specify it would be healthier and tastier with dried chickpeas.
Besides you can prepare it for a dinner party or a barbecue with your friends (the doses are enough for more people in this case)
- What are the most important rules to make a tasty pasta salad? Read more ...

Healthy eating

- Pasta salad is a dish rich in ingredients and so it is necessary to calculate the right amount of everything we use not to exceed calories, fat and sugars. In this case we calculated the nutrition facts with canned chickpeas, really used more.
- Daily menu. Note the amount of calories and the combination of its ingredients. It can be only one-plate meal.
According to the Mediterranean diet you have in the same dish: wholemeal pasta (the best source of carbohydrates and fibers), tomatoes (special source of vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates and fibers), chickpeas (source of proteins and fibers) and olive oil (with the right amount of fat). The Mediterranean diet suggests the combination of pasta and pulses for an healthy diet..
Eat some fresh seasonal vegetable if you are still hungry. Eat fresh fruit as a snack at afternoon.
We remember pasta should be eaten preferably at lunch and the calories eaten at lunch should be 500 - 700 (30 - 35% of energy needs for an adult if his daily needs are about 2000 calories and he correctly divides his calories into 5 micro-meals).
Here are the doses per head: 80 g (2 3/4oz) pasta, 50 g (1 3/4oz) dried chickpeas or 100 g (3 1/2oz) canned chickpeas, well drained and then 200 to 300 g (7 1/4oz to 10 1/2oz) fresh tomatoes, aromatic herbs and one tablespoon olive oil.
- Special occasion menu. Don't worry about fat, calories, sugars ... it happens rarely, doesn't it?
- If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 kCal per 100 ml.
- If you want to know more about Italian pasta and its nutrition value read this page.
- We remember you our original home recipes can be made without salt; there is a combination of flavours that substitutes salt. Other salt-free recipes ...

What's the right wine ?

We suggest a medium-bodied red wine such as Valpolicella (wine of Veneto in Italy) or Nardò rosso (red wine of Apulia).. You can serve Nardò rosato too.