Pasta and Italy, a historically inseparable pairing also consecrated in the world of celluloid. In 1954 in “An American in Rome”, Alberto Sordi in front of a nice plate of pasta he uttered his famous phrase “Macaroni, you provoked me and I will destroy you”. Also in that year in Poverty and Nobility, taken from the theatrical work by Eduardo Scarpetta the great Totò in the role of Felice Sciosciammocca, he swallowed with his bare hands a nice plate of spaghetti. A year earlier in The Return of Don Camillo, Fernandel as the Parish Priest of Brescello and Gino Cervi as Peppone Mayor of the Emilian town shared the table with an inviting plate of pasta. More recently Julia Roberts, in Eat Pray Love in 2010 she savored with luxurious relish a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil sitting in a restaurant in Piazza Febo in Rome. But the entrance of the pleasure of pasta into the world of celluloid dates back to later in the years with the famous scene of 1931 in which Charlie Chaplin in an elegant luxury restaurant he bites into a streamer at the same time as he brings a forkful of spaghetti to his mouth. And even animated films have not escaped the fascination of pasta when in 1953 in Lady and the Tramp the two protagonists share a plate of spaghetti and meatballs and have their first kiss.
And then there is the grand hilarious scene from “I soliti ignoti” by Mino Monicelli in which the gang of bungling and unfortunate thieves formed by Vittorio Gassmann in the role of Peppe Er Pantera, Marcello Mastroianni alias Tiberio, Renato Salvatori the orphan Mario, Carlo Pisacane the legendary Capannelle and Tiberio Murgia aka the equally legendary Feribbotte) discovers that the breach in the wall that should have led them to the Monte di Pietà vault has instead led them straight to the kitchen of a trattoria. So they have no choice but to console themselves with a generous portion of pasta and chickpeas Roman-style, strictly with onion, rosemary and tomatoes.
Talking about Pasta e ceci, a traditional dish in Rome, is equivalent to talking about the Armando al Pantheon restaurant. Defining it as a restaurant is an understatement because Armando al Pantheon is a Capitoline institution, a true temple of Roman cuisine where artists, politicians, writers, three-star chefs and ordinary people have passed through, all united by the desire to eat something that brings to mind the flavors of the Roman popular gastronomic tradition. And since the 60s, management has always remained firmly in the hands of the Gargioli family, now in its third generation, who religiously lead this iconic restaurant defined as “a place suspended in time”.
Making pasta e ceci – says chef Claudio Gargioli who, together with his brother Pietro in charge of the dining room, inherited the reins of the restaurant created by the legendary Armando – is an art and he is not wrong.
The recipe for Pasta and Chickpeas.
Ingredients for 6 people)
1kg of already soaked chickpeas
500 g of heavy razor clams
200g of peeled tomato sauce
1 cloves of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
rosemary, chili pepper, salt to taste
Method
Soak the chickpeas at least the day before, but you can also find those already soaked. Buy high quality chickpeas (for example those from Viterbo) put them in water the night before, then drain them the next day. After rinsing them, boil them with a sprig of rosemary, a chili pepper and a clove of garlic.
When they start to crumble and are soft and tasty under the teeth, dip a couple of tomato soup ladles and half a kilo of heavy razor clams into the pot and drain them al dente. Pasta e ceci is eaten in deep bowls and is also delicious when warm. Another “Chef’s secret” suggestion: raw oil and the addition of blended chickpeas
