Description
Italian cicerchie, (delicious beans that look a lot like gravel or dried corn nuts) have an earthy flavor somewhat reminiscent of chickpeas but with an altogether unique flavor and texture of their own. This winter soup uses just 6 ingredients (plus salt), and it's ready from start to finish in just 30 minutes. Don't worry if you can't find cicerchie -- dried chickpeas, and cannellini beans both make great substitutions.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups dried cicerchie beans (300g) (soaked overnight or up to 24 hours)*sub cannellini, chickpeas, cranberry beans, pinto beans, or navy beans
- 3 ounces spicy ventricina salami (75g) (sub spicy pepperoni or chorizo (fresh or hard)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (30g)
- 1 medium onion(3.5 ounces), diced (100g)
- 1 garlic clove, smashed
- 1 teaspoon Italian Arrosti spice blend (2g) (sub McCormick's Poultry Seasoning or favorite sage-forward blend or Italian spice blend)
- 4 cups water (900g) *sub chicken, vegetable, or turkey stock if desired
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Himalayan salt, or more or less to taste *sub sea salt or kosher salt
Optional garnishes:
- grated Parmigiano, Grana Padano, or Parmesan Cheese
- finely chopped chives or scallions
Instructions
- Sauté the aromatics with ventricina and onions. Heat a 5 to 6-quart pressure cooker (or Instapot, or large stock pot) over medium-high heat, and add the olive oil, onions, garlic, spices, ventricina, and salt and sauté for 5 minutes or until onions are translucent and the ventricina has released some of it's oil.
- Add the cecerchie and cook. Add the soaked cicerchia and water, stir to combine, and place the lid of the pressure cooker on. Once the pressure cooker reaches high pressure, turn the heat down to as low as it can go while still maintaining high pressure. Cook the beans for 20 minutes if doing a quick release, or cook for 15 minutes and allow it to naturally release. *If you're not using a pressure cooker, simply bring the ingredients to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the beans are tender.
- Garnish the soup and serve. Season the soup with salt (and black pepper if desired) and garnish with grated Parmigiano or Grana Padano cheese and chopped chives if desired. Serve with toasted Italian bread drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and, Enjoy!
Notes
Cicerchie need to be soaked on room temperature water for a minimum of 6 hours but are typically soaked from 8 to 24 hours so be sure to plan ahead. If you soak them for longer than overnight, be sure to change the water frequently. I usually make sure there is about 3 inches (7.5cm) of water above the beans as they soak.
To add even more delicious flavor, use your favorite unsalted or low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth instead of water.
If you want a thicker soup, smash some of the cooked cicerchie against the side of the soup pot to break them up.
To help soften the cicerchie skins add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the pot while they cook. Or you can remove some of the skins after they've soaked overnight and before cooking if you want. I never remove the skins, instead, I opt for the baking soda trick!
Can't find Abruzzese Ventricina salami? No problem, simply substitute a spicy salami (salame piccante), fresh Mexican chorizo, or hard Spanish chorizo.
Cicerchie need to be soaked on room temperature water for a minimum of 6 hours but are typically soaked from 8 to 24 hours so be sure to plan ahead. If you soak them for longer than overnight, be sure to change the water frequently. I usually make sure there is about 3 inches (7.5cm) of water above the beans as they soak..
To add even more delicious flavor, use your favorite unsalted or low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth instead of water.
If you want a thicker soup, smash some of the cooked cicerchie against the side of the soup pot to break them up.
To help soften the cicerchie skins, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the pot while they cook. Or you can remove some of the skins after they've soaked overnight and before cooking if you want. I never remove the skins; instead, I opt for the baking soda trick!
Can't find Abruzzese Ventricina salami? No problem, simply substitute a spicy salami (salame piccante), fresh Mexican chorizo, or hard Spanish chorizo.
Note: The amount of sodium reflects only the inherent sodium in the ingredients. 'Salt to taste' is not included in the calculation and will increase the sodium content.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Soup + Stews
- Method: Pressur Cooker
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 recipe
- Calories: 397
- Sugar: 3g
- Sodium: 313mg
- Fat: 14g
- Saturated Fat: 3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 11g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 45g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 24g
- Cholesterol: 19mg
