Chick peas

I'm a fan of chick peas in all its forms -- hummus, falafel, cooked, purreed -- and just hit the indexes the other day to find a recipe. Came up with Garbanzos a la Catalana (chick peas with tomatoes, fresh sausage and peppers) from an early Paula Wolfert book, Mediterranean Cooking. She says it's very popular in Barcelona, where they use a special Catalonian sausage.

Very simple in concept, though a little labor intensive, you soak the dried chick peas overnight, then cook for 1 hour or until tender, and drain, reserving 2 c. of the cooking liquid. You prick and brown a mild pork sausage -- I used Whole Foods mild Italian -- and then cut it into 1-in. chunks. In the grease, you saute 1 c. chopped onion, 1 tsp. minced garlic, and 1 c. diced green pepper along with 5 oz. of slab bacon or lean salt pork that you have simmered in water for 10 min. Then you add 4 large peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes, grating of nutmeg, 1 tsp. ground thyme, salt and pepper, cover and cook for 10 min. Then you fold the sausage chunks into the tomato sauce, put the chick peas into a 13-in. wide, 2-in. deep baking dish, spoon the tomato sauce over it, "moisten" with the cooking liquid, cover with aluminum foil and put into preheated 375-degree oven for 1-1/2 hrs., stirring occasionally.

This was a quick pre-bridge dinner for us, but you could dress it up with some bread and salad. If you like chick peas at all, this an easy, tasty recipe.