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lasagnetti with chickpeas, parma ham, sage, cream and butter

Serves 4
I had a soup in Italy made by the Cassini family's lovely mother, Elina, whose son Enzo is the manager of Zaffarano restaurant in London. Her other son, Vittorio, makes fantastic extra virgin olive oil under the Zaffarano brand, which can be bought in Sainsbury's. Mrs Cassini made this amazing soup using massive dried chickpeas, and prosciutto hock with broth. Since the day I ate it, I've wanted to adapt it into a pasta recipe and so here it is. Lasagnetti is basically a smaller version of lasagne. If you're not going to make fresh lasagnetti, you can buy fresh lasagne sheets prepacked and cut them in half lengthways, or use some tagliatelle. If you've got time then dried chickpeas soaked overnight will give the best results but you can use tinned ones.

Soak your chickpeas overnight in water. Drain, then bring to the boil in fresh water and simmer for about 40 minutes until tender. Add the tomato and potato to the water as this will flavour and soften the chickpea skins. Once tender, put to one side. Put a couple of lugs of extra virgin olive oil in a casserole-type pan and fry the Parma ham and the bacon until lightly golden on both sides. Add the sage leaves and stir around until lightly crisp as well. Add your butter, leeks and garlic and slowly fry until the leeks are nicely softened. Drain the chickpeas, discarding the tomato and potato and reserving the cooking liquid, and add to the pan. At this point mush up about a quarter of them to give a pasty, smooth consistency to the sauce. Give them a good stir and pour over the chicken stock, or you could use the cooking liquor from the chickpeas. Add the cream, bring to the boil, then simmer slowly for 15 minutes to let all the flavours mix. Carefully correct the seasoning.

Cook your lasagnetti in some boiling, salted water. Drain, saving some of the cooking water, and throw the pasta into the chickpea pan – this can now be taken off the heat. Add most of the Parmesan and carefully stir the whole lot together. Add some of the reserved cooking liquor to loosen the pasta. Divide between your plates and serve immediately with the rest of the Parmesan sprinkled over the top and a good drizzle of peppery extra virgin olive oil.

Try this: If you have any dried porcini mushrooms, soak them in boiling water for a few minutes then drain and add with the leeks and garlic to give a lovely intense flavour.


• from Jamie's Kitchen