With soup season arriving, I decided to look back into the long-ago past for a recipe to recreate, and found a medieval-era chickpea soup that certainly sounded interesting
As soup season is upon us, I decided to delve into the annals of history for a recipe to recreate and stumbled upon a medieval-era chickpea soup that piqued my interest. The recipe for Brodo de Ciceri Rosci first made its appearance in the 15th century in Mastro Martino’s Libro de Arte Coquinaria, considered the first Italian cookbook, and was shared online by medievalcuisine.com..
The recipe was then translated and featured in The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, and later modernised further by Cassandra Baldassano at Medieval Cuisine. Despite its simplicity and minimal ingredients, this recipe requires two hours of cooking time but demands little attention during this period, which was perhaps the best aspect of the dish.
Despite being cooked for two hours with just a simple tin of chickpeas, some herbs, and seasoning, the recipe still tasted rather bland and left me feeling peckish after eating.
Fortunately, I’m not an ‘invalid’, as the recipe suggests omitting the oil and spices if preparing for the sick or frail, which would likely result in very watery chickpeas.
While it’s understandable that this recipe hails from the 15th century and thus lacks other ingredients; it doesn’t quite hit the mark for a more contemporary palate. If I were to make it again, I’d certainly opt to add some more ingredients, reports the Express.
Ingredients:
One can of chickpeas
One tablespoon of flour
Three tablespoons of olive oil
Half a teaspoon of salt
Half a teaspoon of ground black pepper
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
One sprig of fresh sage
One sprig of fresh rosemary
One handful of parsley stems
One quart of water
Method:
Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Combine all ingredients, except for one teaspoon of the olive oil. Mix well.
Cover and bring to the boil, reduce the temperature and simmer for two hours. Add the remaining oil and mix before serving. Serve with your choice of bread.