This garbanzo bean pasta is a home-style Italian favorite at my house. It is also very good with great northern white beans instead of garbanzo beans, and any sort of strand pasta works well. Serve with a leafy green salad and crusty Italian bread. If you like spicy food, stir in 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes towards the end.
Ingredients
- sea salt: 1 Tbsp (divided)
- linguine pasta: 1 pack (16 ounce pack)
- extra-virgin olive oil, or more as desired: 2 Tbsp
- garlic: 2 clove (minced)
- bag baby spinach leaves: 1 piece (10 ounce, chopped)
- tomatoes: 3 piece (diced)
- garbanzo beans (chickpeas): 1 can (15 ounce can, drained)
- fresh marjoram: 1 tsp (to taste, chopped)
- black pepper: (to taste, freshly ground)
- red pepper flakes: 0.5 tsp (to taste, optional)
- freshly grated Pecorino-Romano cheese: 0.25 cup (to taste)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Bring a large pot of water with 2 teaspoons sea salt to a boil. Cook linguine at a boil until tender yet firm to the bite, about 11 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of water.
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Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir garlic in hot oil until fragrant, about 1 minute. Increase the heat to medium-high and add spinach, tomatoes, and garbanzo beans; cook and stir until spinach begins to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes more.
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Season the spinach mixture with remaining teaspoon sea salt, marjoram, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to low. Stir drained linguine with the spinach mixture to evenly coat. Add extra olive oil or reserved pasta water to achieve preferred level of moisture in the dish. Top with Pecorino Romano cheese.
