A plate of short pasta tossed with chickpeas next to green salad, in warm window light.

Pasta with chickpeas and salad

Charred lemon chickpea pasta

Name: Charred lemon chickpea pasta
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 25 min
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 340 g short pasta, like rigatoni; 1 can (400 g) chickpeas, drained and patted very dry; 2 lemons, halved; 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; 60 ml good olive oil, divided; 1 tsp chili flakes; 40 g parmesan or a vegetarian hard cheese, finely grated; 1 handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped; flaky salt and black pepper, to taste

Maya Okafor

by @maya_cooks · Weeknight vegetarian, Lagos → Leeds

Adapted from @nonna_rosa

25 min
Serves 4
Easy
Vegetarian

My weeknight reset. The lemon goes on the pan, not after.Maya's note

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Method

7 steps · 25 min

Step 1.
Boil the pasta in well-salted water until a minute shy of al dente. Scoop out a mugful of the pasta water before you drain it.
Step 2.
Heat half the oil in your widest pan over medium-high. Add the chickpeas and leave them alone until they blister and crackle, 6 to 8 minutes, shaking now and then.
Step 2: stirring a pot with a wooden spoon
Step 3.
Push the chickpeas to the edge. Char the lemon halves cut-side down, 4 minutes. Don't move them; you want them deeply bronzed.
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Step 4.
Lower the heat. Add the garlic and chili flakes and stir for about a minute, until the garlic is just golden at the edges.
Step 5.
Squeeze the warm, charred lemons straight into the pan with tongs, scraping up every browned bit. It will hiss. That's the sauce.
Step 6.
Tip in the pasta, the cheese and a good splash of pasta water. Toss hard for a minute until everything turns glossy and clings.
Step 7.
Finish with parsley, lots of black pepper and the rest of the oil. Eat it hot, straight from the pan if nobody's looking.