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
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Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 10 cups of pasta puttanesca 1x
Description
Instant Pot Chickpea Puttanesca with Orecchiette. Pressure cooked chickpeas make up the backbone of this one-pot pasta adapted from Yottam Ottolenghi.
Ingredients
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
Instructions
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
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)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Category: Weeknight Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts
Pressure Cooker Chickpeas
Instant Pot Chickpeas and Tomato Lemon Vinaigrette
Instant Pot Chickpea and Chorizo Tacos
Instant Pot Pastalaya (Cajun Jambalaya with Pasta)
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes
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Diana from Virginia
Thanks, Mike, for another great recipe! I can always count on your recipes to come out wonderfully. I added soy chorizo and mushrooms, and will probably continue to riff on the recipe. It’s a keeper! Again, thanks.
Mike Vrobel
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it (and are riffing off of it!)
S McDowall
Making the recipe now -- but I am not seeing where we add the first batch of parsley to the soup? I only see the "garnish with MORE parsley.." .. where does the parsley go in? With all the other stuff pre-5 minute high / release or after you release? Thanks!
Mike Vrobel
Whoops - the 2 tablespoons of parsley go in with the olives and capers. Sorry about that, and thanks for asking!
Jeff Winett
Yes, this is a riff on an Ottelenghi recipe. But no, I would never have seen or heard of such a combination if not for you! So thanks Dad, for putting this into my consciousness from your post. It will be made many times to come, and I can't wait to feed my non meat eating friends this deliciousness. I'd like to add that I prepared the recipe all the way up until adding the Orecchiette, early in the day. When time for dinner, I just added the pasta and pushed a button! Such fun/ease, and then such deep satisfaction from the meal....oh, I did use low sodium chicken broth, as I had this on hand.
Mike Vrobel
Thank you!
Scott
Saving this to read later. Orecchiette has been my favorite pandemic pasta...fairly new to me. And I combine chickpeas with everything.
Caryn Hart
I just want to let you know that I made this last night and my husband and I both loved it. Will make it a lot!
—Caryn
Mike Vrobel
Thank you, glad you liked it!