Black chickpea soup with clams, when sea and mountains meet

It seems that trends are cyclical and sometimes they come back. This also happens in the kitchen with dishes called ‘sea and mountains’, where the scents of seafood and land products come together.

Today we go to the Murge, a karst territory that extends in one of the most beautiful areas of Apulia region and reaches all the way to Matera. Perhaps many know it for Castel del Monte, a UNESCO heritage site, others for the trulli of Alberobello or the famous white cities of Puglia.

For this recipe of a chickpea and clam soup, I chose the black chickpeas of the Murge Baresi, a variety with particular nutritional characteristics. In fact, they are smaller than the white chickpea but more tenacious and have about three times the fiber and plenty of iron, so they are good for the heart and improve our immune system, making it strong and resilient.

Black chickpeas have interesting organoleptic characteristics and are so rich in protein that they are used in vegan diets.

Recipe of black chickpea soup with clams

Let's start by soaking the chickpeas even 36/48 hours before. This long time depends on their very thick skin which will then also lengthen the cooking time.

When the chickpeas are cooked, let's cook the clams: first we wash them and check them one by one, and then we let them open with a little hot water. Once they are open, we sauté garlic, oil, parsley stalks, chili pepper and some cherry tomatoes. Once everything is flavored, add the clams with their liquid.

In a separate pan we put oil and a chopped onion that we will brown gently, add the already cooked chickpeas and brown everything together. After a few minutes, add the clams with all the seasoning and mix delicately, diluting with hot water if necessary to let the chickpeas finish cooking.

Before serving the dish, we make a few slices of toasted homemade bread, then we remove some of the clam shells and plate adding the bread with a sprinkling of pepper and a drizzle of raw oil.

In the glass I chose a savory and fresh white, a Frascati Superiore DOCG from the Casale Vallechiesa winery.