Cicerchia (grass pea) ... an unjustly forgotten legume...
Just back from the festive binge? Have you been forced into “tours de force” around laden tables? Even today on these tables, despite the changed habits of our times, when we all claim that “we don't eat the way we used to”, countless courses of every sort will still surely have paraded past: starters, first courses, meat, fish, vegetables (surely few) and sweets, sweeties and sweetmeats in outrageous quantities. Everything will surely have been delicious! Everything richly dressed. Mothers, grandmothers and aunts dusted off their secret recipe books in search of dishes that would cause amazement just to look at, let alone after tasting them... a second helping was compulsory.
If the time has come to put your diet in order... dear mountain lovers, you have forgotten health, well-being and fitness; those extra kilos will make themselves felt as soon as you move away from the fireplace and start your next climb... Butter, fried food, stews, sauces and creams have shaped the fateful “spare tyre”, but in summer you go to the mountains, not the seaside, or am I wrong? That is why I have dusted off a recipe that is perhaps not strictly typical of mountain cooking, and yet whose main ingredient is grown in our country mainly, though not only, in mountainous and hilly regions such as Abruzzo, Marche and Umbria.
I am talking about the "cicerchia" (in dialect Cicerchie or Cecere), originally from the Middle East, widely grown in Asia and East Africa and to a limited extent in some parts of Europe, and already known at the time of the Romans, who called it Cicercula.
It is a humble legume that grows from a herbaceous plant, rather hardy, with an annual cycle, very similar to the chickpea plant. It does not need much care and withstands severe drought. It is sown in spring and harvested in July/August. For a long time this legume was forgotten and for years the only cicerchia to be found on the market was the large, tasteless kind grown in Central America as animal fodder. Only thanks to the loyalty of farmers attached to tradition and to their eating habits, as happened for example in Serra de' Conti in the province of Ancona, did people go on growing the tasty Marche variety in their kitchen gardens, saving it from extinction, or, as another example, in the Gran Sasso National Park, where interest in protecting crop and agronomic biodiversity has turned into an experience that has made Castelvecchio Calvisio a specialist production centre. Cicerchia needs neither long soaking (one night is enough) nor long cooking (forty minutes will do). It is a particularly versatile ingredient: excellent in soups and broths, but also cooked as a purée or served as a side dish with sausages, pig's trotters or pork rind. Cicerchia flour, moreover, is used to make maltagliati and pappardelle.
“Zuppa di Cicerchia”
For 4 people, about 200 g of cicerchia
Soak the cicerchia the evening before. In the morning, throw away the soaking water and rinse it under running water. Boil it for about forty minutes, or longer if necessary, skimming off with a slotted spoon the little skins that float to the surface. Add the salt only towards the end of cooking. At this point you can decide whether to eat it simply like this, with its cooking broth and a drizzle of oil and some rosemary, or... carry on with a soffritto of oil and finely chopped celery, carrot and onion, to which you add sausage, pounded lardo or pancetta, 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce, salt and chilli. Drain the cicerchia, keeping a little of the cooking liquid, add it to the soffritto together with the liquid and leave it to take on flavour for 10 minutes. If you like, you can blend part of the cicerchia before adding it to the soffritto: it gives the soup a pleasant creaminess. Serve with toasted bread croutons and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Finding cicerchia is not easy: you will hardly find it in supermarkets, and only in exceptional cases can you find it on the dried pulses shelf among the organic products. It is easier to find cicerchia at shops specialising in organic produce. Easier still is finding excellent products online at a really attractive price.
Another legume soup from the Apennine mountains is Castelluccio di Norcia lentil soup.