Does this recipe seem Italian? If so, from which region?

[hungry_united]

A friend passed on a recipe for pasta in chickpea sauce, which involves cooking chickpeas with a diced onion, a garlic glove, minced basil, and tomato paste until the chickpeas are tender, then pureeing half of them (or simply smushing them with a wooden spoon) to make a chickpea sauce that coats pasta (she recommended fettucine but I use fusilli). Does this seem like an Italian recipe? If so, from what region? I am familiar with pasta con ceci (chickpea soup) but that tends to have a broth of sorts. Has anyone seen a recipe like this and can point me to a cookbook or other source?
Thanks in advance!

[onceadaylily]

This is similar to a recipe in Julia Della Croce's Classic Italian (but has no tomato paste, and includes celery and carrot, and another herb or two). The recipe is ciceri e tria, for which Croce gives credit to the Salento region (in the heel of the boot), and calls her recipe a 'variation' of the classic dish. So it may well have had a tomato component.

And it looks delicious.

[Perilagu Khan]

This could hale from anywhere in Southern Italy, and probably the far south. Basilicata and Campagnia are possibilities as are Calabria and Puglia.

[cgarner]

Throw in a dash of cinnamon, coriander, cumin and tumeric and it's a mid-eastern dish... Ingredients like chick peas, garlic, tomatoes and onions are prolific in mediterranean and middle eastern foods, so it's hard to say if it's Italian specifically.

[roxlet]

I think that this recipe is probably from the area around Naples. It is similar to something my grandmother and mother used to make.

[mnosyne]

Yeah. Sounds like the "minestre" my MIL used to make: veg and pasta, prior to the meat course.

[Bethcooks]

Are you willing to share chickpea pasta recipe as I would really like it. Thanks.

[hungry_united]

sure... like i said i'm not sure where it's from, but it's good!

serves 6
1/2 c olive oil
1 med onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 TB minced fresh basil
2 TB tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
2 16 oz cans chickpeas
1 lb fusilli
1/2 grated parmesan
Heat oil in large skilet and sautee onion until golden. Add garlic, basil, tomato paste, salt, and pepper and stir. Stir in chickpeas and add water to cover. Simmer until chickpeas are tender (about 30 min) then puree half the chickpeas in their liquid (can use a fork and mash against the pan). cook the sauce until it thickens a bit. cook pasta, drain, and toss with sauce. top with parmesan.

[Bethcooks]

I had a chickpea pasta made with what I think were lasagna noodles??? Anyway it was a flat pasta and I had it in Sicily which makes sense historically since Sicily had more contact with the middle east. Maybe a cookbook focused on Southern Italian cooking - but alas, I am no help there.