Mediterranean chickpea and ditalini soup (pasta e ceci)

Roman-style Mediterranean chickpea and pasta soup (pasta e ceci) with ditalini, rosemary, tomato purée, hard cheese and lemon. A one-pot lunch with 12 g of fibre.

At a glance

• Serves 4
• Prep time: 10 min
• Cooking time: 30 min
• Total time: 40 min
• Calories: 472 kcal per serving
• Protein: 20 g
• Fat: 15 g
• Carbs: 59 g

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 480g chickpeas
• 1 l vegetable stock
• 200g ditalini pasta
• 40g vegetarian hard cheese (Parmesan-style)
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 20g parsley
• 1 pinch of pepper

Method

You’ll need: saucepan · stick blender · chopping board · knife · sieve · grater · wooden spoon · ladle

1. Finely dice the onion, carrot and celery and chop the garlic.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan and soften the veg with the finely chopped rosemary for 5 min. Stir in the garlic and tomato purée and fry both for 1 min.
3. Drain the chickpeas, add them to the pan with the vegetable stock and simmer everything for 10 min.
4. Blend a third of the soup in the pan with a stick blender to make it creamy. Add the ditalini and cook, stirring, for 10 min until al dente.
5. Grate the hard cheese, chop the parsley and grate a little lemon zest. Season the soup with pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.
6. Serve the soup with the hard cheese, parsley and lemon zest.

Good to know

Pasta e ceci is Italian home cooking made from chickpeas and short pasta, somewhere between a soup and a stew. Ditalini, the little pasta tubes, were among the terms with the steepest rise in Google searches in 2025. Some of the chickpeas are blended, which makes the soup creamy without cream.

Swaps

Ditalini → small macaroni, or rice (gluten-free). Hard cheese → nutritional yeast (vegan). Tinned chickpeas → 200 g dried, soaked overnight and pre-cooked (cheaper). Rosemary → sage.

Cooking tips

The pasta soaks up stock as it stands – add hot water before serving if needed. Blending instead of adding cream makes the soup creamy.

Storage

The soup keeps for 3 days in the fridge; for leftovers, it's best to cook the pasta separately, or it goes soft.

Allergens

Contains gluten, milk and celery; no egg or nuts. Vegan with nutritional yeast instead of hard cheese.