Chickpea and pancetta soup

Several people who attended this weekend's supperclubs expressed an interest in the chickpea and pancetta soup recipe, so here it is!

• 500g pancetta cut into 1 cm lardons
• 1 leek, finely diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 large carrot, finely diced
• 3 sticks of celery, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• bouquet garni (sprig of rosemary, thyme, bayleaf, black peppercorns)
• 1 litre of white chicken stock
• Handful of freshly grated parmesan
• 2 400g tins of chickpeas
• Handful of flat leafed parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped
• A few glugs of good extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Fry the lardons slowly over a medium heat until crisp. Drain the oil that renders but do not discard and place the lardons to one side.

In a deep sauce pan, fry the onion, leek, carrots, celery and garlic slowly in the pancetta oil over a low heat. To achieve a deeply flavoured soup fry for a long time until the veg is lovely and browned — but not burnt!

Add the chicken stock and the bouquet garni to the vegetables and reduce buy a third. Add the chickpeas, blitz half of the soup in a blender and return to the pan.

Add the parmesan, lardons and parsley and season well.

Serve with ciabatta or foccacia with a generous drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil

Let me know how it goes! x