Spicy Chickpea Pasta Bowls

On every front, these spicy chickpea pasta bowls have a lot going on. I keep notebooks of everything I cook worth remembering. And this is a page I keep turning back to. Here’s how it goes. While you’re waiting for a big pot of pasta to come to a boil, puree a quick, intensely flavorful sauce of harissa, egg yolks, lemon, chickpeas, and olive oil. Fold the sauce into your cooked pasta (over heat) and stir until everything is coated and glossy. Chopped cucumber and cilantro is incorporated next, and everything is finished with toasted cashews, crispy fried onions, and feta cheese. So good served in individual bowls or family-style as you see pictured here.

Spicy Chickpea Pasta Bowls: Ingredient Notes

• Harissa: This is the one I’ve been using - a rose harissa. I bought a jar when I had lunch at Mayfield a while ago, and never looked back. Use whatever harissa you like enough to keep on hand.
  
• Pasta: I’ve cooked variations on this recipe with a range of pastas and noodles, and have some thoughts. Short, sturdy dried pastas work best. They stand up to the stirring and mixing that happens as you’re coating the pasta with the sauce better. Fresh pastas are a lot harder to get right here, and the whole situation can get, I dunno, gloopier. It still tastes delicious, but the dried pastas are easier. You can see a version I made with fresh ramen noodles (pictured below), it was good - but was more challenging to keep clump-free. Good results have happened with: penne, ziti, reginatti, and the paccheri you see in the photos.
• Feta: I tend to like sheep’s milk feta, and prefer the kind sold in blocks. This allows you to break off different sized bits and pieces versus pre-crumbled feta.

The Sauce

You can see what the sauce looks like in the photo below. There are just a few ingredients that you puree. I find the easiest for clean-up is to use a hand blender, but you can use a standard blender or food processor if that is what you have in your kitchen.

Variations

This is the sort of meal that begs to be adapted to whatever you have on hand. My initial inspiration was actually a photo I saw of an Ottolenghi ramen dish made with tuna and gochujang. I loved all the colors and the overall ingredient mash-up, but as a vegetarian tuna isn’t in my cooking palette. That said, I was still inspired, and used the overall vibe as a jumping off point - incorporating chickpeas and other ingredients I had on hand. I’d encourage you to do the same! For example, play around with another herb - basil is amazing, dill could be interesting. I'm going to a version next week using roasted broccoli and delicata squash in place of the cucumber. Anyway, have fun and let me know how it goes!

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• Chickpea & Rice Soup with Garlic Chile Oil
• Turmeric Chickpeas with Garlic Tahini
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