A Hummus Recipe

When I was doing my back to roots trip last August visiting the Dalwallinu, Wubin and Coorow region in the West Australian wheat belt, I spent a terrific evening basking in the hospitality of John and Helen Nankerville at their farmhouse. They’d been clients of my dad. He bought wool from them. But times have changed and so has farming. At some point in our conversation it turned out that now days instead of wool they grow chickpeas, amongst other things.They grow it for export, but they didn’t know how to prepare it, nor did they have any recipes. Well I’ve seen my wife soak pots of it overnight or open a can of it to pop into a salad but I didn’t know any recipes; and frankly the hummus pastes I’ve tasted in Australia leave something to be desired. I promised to send them some recipes.
So now John and Helen I’m finally repaying your hospitality, partially at least.
I learned from Claudia Roden, doyen of Middle Eastern cooking, that in the past chickpeas had to be soaked for hours in cold water with bicarbonate of soda, and then required prolonged cooking. After that you often had to remove their tough outer skins, a long and tedious operation, especially when you had a large quantity to cook up. The chickpeas sold today are of a superior quality. You only have to soak them in plain cold water overnight (without the bicarbonate of soda) and they are usually tender after ¾ to 1 hours cooking in boiling, salted water. However the cooking time can vary according to the quality, their place of origin and age.
This davka is an Italian hummus soup recipe from Aharoni and Saul Avron-Woodcutters’ soup from Montlacino.
Ingredients:
250 gr. of chickpeas
¼ cup of olive oil
1 large onion, preferably red, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped
1 tablespoon rosemary, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ litres of water or clear soup
100 gr. of short pasta, cooked and drained
Preparation:
1. leave the chickpeas in lots of water overnight.
2. heat up the olive oil in a large pot and fry the onions and garlic til the onions are transparent, add the tomatoes and fry for 2 minutes
3. add the chickpeas, rosemary, salt and pepper and the soup or water.
4. bring to boil, cover the pot, and cook on a low flame for up to 1 ½ hours.
5. add the pasta and serve straight away