Persian pasta with spiced chickpeas and pistachio recipe

Details

• Cuisine: English
• Recipe Type: Main
• Difficulty: Easy
• Preparation Time: 5 mins
• Cooking Time: 20 mins
• Serves: 2

Step-by-step

1. Boil a large pot of water for your pasta. Dice around a cupful of your onion. Place the flat side of a large knife on top of your garlic clove and press down firmly to release the skin. Now peel and finely dice the garlic. Finally, finely dice half a cup of fresh parsley.
2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat. Cook the garlic and onion gently for 5 minutes until they are nice and soft.
3. Add the spices to the pan together with a quarter of a teaspoon of salt and a few good grinds of pepper.
4. Add the tomatoes and the drained chickpeas and turn the heat to medium/low. Bubble the mixture away for 10 minutes whilst you cook your pasta.
5. Place your pasta into the boiling water with half a teaspoon of salt. Cook the pasta for around 10 minutes, or until `al dente' (i.e. the pasta is cooked through but has a hint of firmness left in the middle).
6. Whilst the pasta is cooking put a pan on medium heat without any oil and put in your almond flakes. Dry cook them until they are nicely browned off and then keep them to the side. Watch them like a hawk, so they don't burn.
7. Stir half of the parsley and the almonds into your chickpea sauce. Drain the pasta and mix this into the sauce as well. Serve with a sprinkling of your pistachios and some more parsley to garnish.