by Emi Boonin
For many gluten free people, myself included, it is hard to find good substitutes for the staples in our pantries. I often find myself settling for “good enough” gluten free bread, crackers, and pasta instead of finding the “greats.” When we started carrying Pastificio La Rosa gluten free pasta, I felt cautiously optimistic – Italy, while famously a gluten-heavy cuisine, also has a decently big population with celiac disease, and I had been wanting to try some for a while. One particular shape caught my eye. Mezze Maniche, or ‘short sleeves’ in Italian, is a wide, short, tubular pasta that, in my opinion, is the perfect size to pair with chickpeas. Thus, this recipe was born!
This is one of my favorite low-effort meals – I can grab the ingredients on my way out of work and have dinner ready in about 30 minutes. It doesn’t require too much thought and at the end of a long day; there’s nothing I love more than turning my brain off and enjoying good food. It also pairs well with whatever veggies I inevitably have lying around in my fridge, and makes for great leftovers.
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry*
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3-4 cloves garlic, grated
- Salt & pepper
- ½ box Pastificio La Rosa Mezze Maniche pasta
- 1 container France 44 Paprika Parm Dip
* I recently started using use Rancho Gordo beans, but when I’m feeling lazy, I opt for canned chickpeas.
Directions
- Fill a pot with water, salt generously, and cover. When boiling, add the pasta. Once fully cooked (past al dente), drain and set aside.
- In a large, flat-bottomed pot, heat the oil on medium-high. Fry the garlic until aromatic, then add the chickpeas, salt, and pepper. Fry until crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool.
- Once both the pasta and the crispy chickpeas have cooled, toss them together with a container of Paprika Parm Dip. Season to taste, and enjoy!
*You can eat this warmed up, but the cheese can get a little messy to clean up, so I prefer this as a cold pasta salad.
