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Italian · Salento, Puglia
Ciceri e Tria — Fried and Boiled Pasta with Chickpeas
Ciceri e tria is one of the oldest documented pasta dishes in Italy, specifically associated with the Salento area of Puglia: wide pasta strips (tria — derived from the Arabic 'itria', meaning pasta) half-fried in olive oil until crisp and half-cooked in the chickpea broth. The fried and boiled tria are combined with the chickpeas — the fried strips provide crunch and a roasted-oil flavour; the boiled strips provide the familiar soft pasta texture. The combination of two textures from the same pasta, in the same bowl, is the central technique of the dish. It has been prepared in Salento since at least the medieval period.
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I
The Market List
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For the tria dough
300 g
semolina rimacinata
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
150 ml
warm water
Your own market
For the chickpeas and broth
400 g
dried chickpeas
soaked overnight
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2 cloves
garlic
raw, for finishing
Your own market
For frying
500 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
for frying the tria strips
Your own market
To finish
4 tbsp
extra-virgin olive oil
raw, for dressing
Your own market
1 tsp
dried chilli
optional
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
II
The Method
1
Combine the semolina rimacinata with warm water and work to a smooth, firm dough. Rest the dough, covered, until it relaxes and becomes pliable. Roll to 2 mm thickness, then cut into wide strips 2–3 cm across and 15–20 cm long. The strips should be uniform: uneven thickness will cause erratic frying.
2
Cook the soaked chickpeas in plenty of water until fully tender. Keep all of the cooking liquid: this starchy, slightly sweet broth is the sauce. The chickpeas are done when they yield completely under pressure between the fingers with no chalky resistance at the centre.
3
Divide the cut tria: reserve one-third of the strips for frying; keep two-thirds for boiling. Heat the olive oil to 175 °C in a wide pan. This is where the dish lives or dies — oil below temperature produces greasy, limp strips rather than crisp ones; the correct heat gives an immediate, vigorous sizzle the moment a strip enters the oil. Fry the reserved strips in batches, 2–3 minutes per side, until deep golden. Drain on paper and hold uncovered.
4
Bring the chickpea broth back to a simmer in the same pot. Add the remaining two-thirds of the tria strips directly to the broth and cook until al dente. The pasta is ready when it offers a faint resistance at the bite but carries no raw flour taste.
5
Ladle the chickpeas and their broth into warmed bowls. Arrange the boiled pasta strips over the chickpeas. Lay the fried crisp strips across the top immediately before the bowls leave the kitchen — not before. Dress with raw extra-virgin olive oil, raw garlic, and dried chilli if used. The fried strips must still crack audibly when pressed; if they have softened, the dish has waited too long.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Semolina rimacinata from a single Pugliese durum wheat variety, stone-milled; dried chickpeas from Salento or Murgia, small and thin-skinned; a single-estate Pugliese extra-virgin olive oil of the Coratina or Ogliarola cultivar for both frying and finishing.
02
Estate — Good-quality Italian semolina rimacinata; dried chickpeas of Italian origin; a reputable southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil used throughout.
03
Market — Standard semolina rimacinata widely available in Italian delicatessens; dried chickpeas of any reliable provenance, well-soaked; a clean, fruity extra-virgin olive oil of moderate price.
04
House — Any fine-grind durum semolina in the absence of rimacinata; tinned chickpeas may substitute in the broth, though the cooking liquid will be thinner and less starchy; a neutral olive oil for frying if an estate oil is unavailable.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sound. A vigorous, immediate sizzle as each tria strip enters the frying oil confirms the oil is at 175 °C; a sluggish or quiet entry signals the oil is too cool.
◇Sight. The fried strips are done when they turn deep golden on both sides, with no pale or translucent patches remaining.
◇Touch. The chickpeas are fully cooked when they yield completely under finger pressure with no chalky resistance at the centre.
◇Taste. The boiled tria strips are done when they offer faint resistance at the bite and carry no raw flour taste in the broth.
◇Sound. The assembled dish is ready to serve when the fried strips still crack audibly under light pressure; silence means they have softened and the contrast is lost.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies in the frying: oil at 175 °C produces crisp, oil-roasted strips in 2–3 minutes per side; oil below temperature produces greasy, yielding ones, and the textural contrast on which the entire dish depends is lost.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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