Chickpea, Sausage, and Kale Pasta

I was skeptical of this dish at first - it seemed like it might be chalky or dry given the chickpeas mixed with pasta.  But using dried chickpeas instead of canned gives this a wealth of surprisingly fresh flavor, and the mixture of cheese and a snap of lemon juice really gives this dish a lot of energy to complement the inherent deliciousness that is spicy Italian sausage.  I felt like I had done something productive with my night after eating this, and didn't slip into the usual food coma.

Digging around online, I found a very similar recipe to this one from Martha Stewart by Mark Bittman, who instead of Italian sausage uses chorizo, and instead of pasta uses bread crumbs.  He cooks the chickpeas for a more significant amount of time, more like 10 minutes instead of 3.  I might try this variant next time, plus this dish would probably be equally delicious just substituting chorizo for Italian sausage.

Let me implore you to use dried chickpeas in this dish.  Canned chickpeas taste like a whole lot of nothing now that we've tried both fresh and dried, which are staggeringly close to each other in flavor after the dried peas have been soaked overnight.  They're cheaper than canned, they're easy to find almost anywhere (check the latin or Indian section of your store), they have less salt, and they're generally superior.  At the very least, buy a test bag and soak a few overnight, then eat them raw.  If you don't switch over after eating one, I will be amazed.

Chickpea and Sausage Pasta
Modified slightly from Martha Stewart

• 1/2 pound short pasta, such as orecchiette or rotini
• 3/4 pound Italian sausage meat, preferably spicy
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 5 cups ribbed and shredded kale
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon juice, for drizzling

If using dried chickpeas, soak overnight in cool water.  Drain, and boil in fresh water with 1/2 tsp salt for 30 minutes until tender.  Drain, and set aside.  If using the more boring and significantly less tasty canned chickpeas, rinse and drain them and set them aside.

Cook pasta, then drain, reserving up to 1/2 cup of cooking water.  In a skillet, cook sausage meat in 1 tablespoon olive oil until opaque, breaking up with a spoon.  Add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add chickpeas and cook 3 minutes.  Add kale and wilt.  Add pasta and Parmesan; season.  If this looks way too dry, add reserved pasta cooking water, 1 tbsp at a time, until it looks right.  Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, and serve immediately.

Step 1...

Step 2...

Step 3.  That's pretty much it, except for throwing in some cooked pasta and a few lively liquids at the end.