Our Complements to the Protein

Ceci e pasta was a favorite Friday-night dinner when I was growing up. More a thick soup than a pasta dish, it was eaten out of shallow soup plates with large soup spoons.

At the time, I’m sure that my mother wasn’t aware of the term “complementary proteins” or the now slightly outdated notion of eating two incomplete (vegetable) proteins in one dish in order to get the nutritional benefit of a complete (meat) protein. But she did know that pasta and beans made a wholesome combination. She also knew that we loved it.

My version of ceci e pasta is slightly different from the dish I grew up with. We always had made it with small elbow macaroni, and because I don’t remember it being red with tomatoes, I suspect Mom used a combination of undrained canned ceci beans (also known as garbanzo beans or chick peas) and a ladle full of the pasta cooking water for the liquid. Because I love the salty starch taste, I still use the pasta cooking water, but I have added canned Italian tomatoes, and I use small shell pasta instead of elbows.

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Round out the menu with a simple room-temperature broccoli, lemon and olive oil side dish. For dessert, serve an Italian-style orange ice, called orange granita because of its grainy consistency.

CECI E PASTA 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 1/2 carrot, chopped 1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes with juice 1 (16-ounce) garbanzo beans (ceci beans), rinsed and drained 1 (16-ounce) package small pasta shells Salt 1 cup pasta cooking liquid 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Combine oil, onion, garlic and carrot in large skillet. Cook over low heat, stirring, until onion is tender, about 10 minutes. Do not brown. Add tomatoes with juice and garbanzo beans. Simmer over low heat about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cook pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente, or almost tender. Reserve about 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Drain pasta and immediately stir pasta into skillet with garbanzo beans. Add enough reserved pasta cooking liquid for extra moisture. Mixture is supposed to be very juicy. Sprinkle with parsley and cheese. Pass extra cheese to sprinkle on each serving. Makes 4 generous servings.

BROCCOLI WITH LEMON AND OLIVE OIL 1 bunch broccoli, thick ends trimmed, cut into florets with stems separated lengthwise 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, or more to taste Kosher salt

1/2 lemon, cut into wedges

Place broccoli in steamer basket and set over boiling water. Cover and steam until tender, about 8 minutes.

Transfer broccoli to serving platter. Drizzle with olive oil and salt to taste. Garnish with lemon wedges. Squeeze juice from lemon wedge over each portion when served. Can serve immediately or at room temperature. Makes 4 servings.

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This dessert is also delicious when made with tangerine juice. Fresh juice is preferred, of course, but if there isn’t time to squeeze fresh juice, frozen is an acceptable substitute.

ORANGE GRANITA 1 cup boiling water 1/3 cup sugar 2 cups orange juice 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Stir together boiling water and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in orange and lemon juices and grated orange zest. Stir to blend. Pour mixture into shallow metal pan and freeze until slushy. Stir well.

Freeze until firm enough to mound, 1 to 2 hours, depending on temperature of freezer. Spoon into wine glasses and serve. Makes 4 servings.