Sagne e ceci, or sagne a pezzate

Sagne are a homemade pasta made with flour and water, without eggs. The sheet is rolled by hand, not too thin, and cut with a knife into irregular pieces: hence the name sagne «a pezzate» («in pieces»). Every family cuts them its own way, into diamonds, squares or short strips.

With chickpeas they make a one-dish meal, halfway between a soup and a pasta dish: the pasta cooks directly in the chickpea broth and soaks up its flavour, while the starch makes everything creamy.

It is a dish of the province of L’Aquila and inland Abruzzo, made above all in the cold months. Around Pescara there is a very similar version with beans, sagne e fagioli.

For the sagne

• 300 g durum wheat semolina (or half semolina and half plain flour)
• About 150 ml lukewarm water
• A pinch of salt

For the chickpeas

• 250 g dried chickpeas
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Chilli, to taste
• Salt
• Optional: 2–3 cherry tomatoes or a spoonful of passata, or a little guanciale

1. The evening before, soak the chickpeas in plenty of cold water.
2. Drain them, cover with fresh water in a large pot, add the rosemary and bay leaf and simmer for 2–3 hours until tender. Add salt only at the end.
3. Meanwhile make the sagne: knead semolina, lukewarm water and salt into a smooth, firm dough; leave it to rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
4. Roll the dough out to 1–2 millimetres with a rolling pin and let it dry for a few minutes.
5. Cut the sheet into strips and then into irregular pieces, diamonds or squares, and dust them with flour so they do not stick.
6. In a pan warm the oil with the garlic and chilli (and, if you like, the tomato or guanciale); add the chickpeas with some of their broth and let the flavours blend.
7. Bring to the boil, add the sagne and cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring and adding chickpea broth if needed: the dish should stay soft, neither too dry nor too brothy.
8. Serve with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil and let it rest for a minute before bringing it to the table.

• Mash some of the chickpeas with a fork: the base becomes creamier and coats the pasta better.
• Keep the chickpea cooking water: it is the «secret» of the dish and lets you adjust the consistency.
• Sagne keep for a day, well floured and covered with a tea towel.
• Tinned chickpeas are quicker, but the broth from dried chickpeas tastes quite different.

We do not have photos of this dish yet: the images are illustrations made for this page.

Pasta and pulses have always been the basis of peasant cooking in the Apennines: humble ingredients that keep all winter and give energy for work in the fields and with the flocks.

The name «sagne» is found in many parts of central and southern Italy for homemade flour-and-water pasta; in Abruzzo sagne are paired with chickpeas, beans, lentils and grass peas.