Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette

Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette. Pressure cooked chickpeas make up the backbone of this one-pot pasta adapted from Yottam Ottolenghi.

Yottam Ottolenghi has been a revolution in cooking. He combines the flavors from his Jerusalem childhood with the global ideas learned working as a chef at modern London restaurants. And, he shares his “I want drama in the mouth” principles with home cooks in his (mostly but not entirely vegetarian) cookbooks and newspaper columns. His ideas have been a revelation, expanding the palette of flavor profiles used in cooking. (Especially for home cooks like me, who are fascinated with global flavors, and how he combines them.)

I saw him on virtual tour, supporting his new cookbook Ottolenghi Flavor. where he talked about using “flavor bombs” to create that drama in food. And, while he was talking, he was making a one-pan meal - chickpea puttanesca - in the background. It’s a distilled version of his cooking techniques, combining the big flavors of an Italian puttanesca, like capers, olives, and tomatoes, with lemon and spices from the Eastern mediterranean.

Now, I knew I had to try this recipe, but I leapt into action when he said “tinned (canned) chickpeas are fine for this.” Not on my watch! (I mean, who do you think you are, a world famous chef and cookbook author who’s brought a whole new way of looking at flavors to the world, and is trying to simplify them for a home audience? Wait, don’t answer that…)

I’m taking his idea for this recipe and adapting it to my own tastes, starting with pressure cooked chickpeas. They are so much better than tinned. I mean canned. Also, this lets me use the bean broth to bulk up the liquid, and replace some of the vegetarian broth that acts as the liquid to boil the pasta.

I’m also switching up some of the spices to match my tastes. One reason I was drawn to this recipe is how much the chickpeas overlap with my favorite crispy Oven Roasted Chickpeas. I mixed and matched his ingredient list with my own, adding lemon and garlic, replacing cumin with coriander, and adding hot red pepper flakes so I can use smoked Spanish paprika instead of hot paprika.

Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette

Adapted from: Ottolenghi Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi, Ixta Belfrage, and Tara Wigley

Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette

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5 from 5 reviews

• Author: Mike Vrobel
• Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
• Yield: 10 cups of pasta puttanesca 1x

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Description

Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette. Pressure cooked chickpeas make up the backbone of this one-pot pasta adapted from Yottam Ottolenghi.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Pressure Cooker Chickpeas

• 4 ounces dried chickpeas (a heaping ½ cup), sorted and rinsed
• 2 cups water
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

Chickpea Puttanesca

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Chickpeas (from above)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from about ½ a lemon)
• 1 teaspoon paprika (preferably smoked Spanish paprika)
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1½ cups vegetable broth or water
• 1 cup chickpea cooking liquid (or more vegetable broth or water)
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes (or substitute a 15oz can of diced tomatoes)
• ½ cup green olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley
• 8 ounces Orecchiette pasta (or other small pasta shape, like elbows)
• More minced parsley for garnish

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Instructions

1. Pressure cook the chickpeas for 45 minutes with a Quick Release: Put the dried chickpeas, 2 cups of water, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon baking soda in an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker. Lock the lid, and cook at high pressure for 45 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric PC, or for 40 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” mode in an Instant Pot). Quick release the pressure in the pot and drain the chickpeas, saving 1 cup of the chickpea cooking liquid. Wipe out the pot if immediately moving to the next step.
2. Sauté the chickpeas and the aromatics: Heat the olive oil an Instant Pot set to sauté mode adjusted to high (medium-high heat in a stovetop pressure cooker) until the olive oil starts to shimmer, about 3 minutes. Add the drained chickpeas to the hot oil, and sprinkle with the ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook the chickpeas, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown and get crispy, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, lemon zest, paprika, coriander, and red pepper flakes, and stir until the spices are evenly distributed through the chickpeas. Cook for 1 more minute, stirring often, to toast the spices a little.
3. Everything in the pot: Pour in the vegetable broth and reserved chickpea cooking liquid, and scrape the bottom of the pot with a flat edged wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits of chickpeas or spices. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, capers, 2 tablespoons parsley, and the orecchiette pasta. Try to get as much of the orecchiette submerged in the liquid as you can.
4. Pressure cook for 5 minutes with a 10 minute natural release: Lock the pressure cooker lid, and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes (Use “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” mode in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.
5. Serve: Stir the pot to make sure everything is evenly mixed. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with a little more parsley to garnish, serve, and enjoy!

Equipment

Fine Mesh Strainer

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6-Quart Pressure Cooker

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Notes

This recipe is perfect if you have leftover pressure cooked chickpeas - just pull a 2 cup container of chickpeas out of the freezer, and you're ready to go. Or, if you must, you can use a 15-ounce can of drained chickpeas. (Plus some low sodium vegetable broth). I mean, if Mr. Ottolenghi says it's OK, it's OK. But, please, try it with homemade chickpeas, and I'll be surprised if you ever go back to canned.

Cherry tomatoes vs canned tomatoes. Now, while I may be a canned bean snob, I'm the opposite when it comes to tomatoes. Most of the time, unless it is the height of tomato season, I'll recommend canned tomatoes. This recipe is an exception, though, because modern grocery store Cherry and Grape tomatoes have a lot more flavor than old-style, bland grocery store tomatoes. I have canned tomatoes as an option for this recipe, but if you can grab a pint of cherry tomatoes, they work really well in this recipe.

Chickpeas or garbanzos? They’re the same bean. Garbanzo is Spanish for chickpea.

Tools

6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot 6-Quart Pressure Cooker)

Flat edged wooden spoon

Fine Mesh Strainer

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 90 minutes
• Category: Weeknight Dinner
• Method: Pressure Cooker
• Cuisine: Mediterranean

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