You will need a measuring cup, a colander, a large pasta pot, and a wide frying or sauté pan to make this recipe.

Set the sauté pan over medium low heat. Pour in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan generously. Add the garlic and salami or ham if using. Allow to soften.

While garlic cooks, drain the chickpeas in the colander. Rinse under running water, then add to the pan. Stir.

Add tomato paste and stir to incorporate. Add the broth or other liquid and turn heat up a bit; you want a gentle bare simmer. Mixture should not boil.

Add the hot pepper flakes, if using.

Stir in spinach. It will cook down amazingly. Stir occasionally, turning down heat if necessary.

Cook vegetable/chickpea mixture until spinach cooks down, about four minutes. Turn burner down to lowest possible heat, keeping sauce warm while you make the pasta.

Fill  the large pot with plenty of water–Marcella Hazan advises four quarts (4L) to a pound of pasta. Again quoting Hazan, add at least 1 and 1/2 tablespoons Kosher or sea salt to the water. Place on a burner and crank up the heat.

When the water reaches a full boil, add the pasta. Stir, so it doesn’t stick.

Cook pasta until al dente, or cooked to your taste.

Before straining pasta, carefully dip the measuring cup into the pan, reserving about 4 ounces/118 ml of the pasta cooking water. If your pasta or chickpea/spinach sauce is a bit dry, a little of this starchy water will pull the dish together.

Strain pasta, rapidly returning it to your pasta pot.

You now have two choices:

1. Be a prole. Dump pan of sauce directly into the pasta, stir everything together, and  taste for seasoning. Add a little olive oil and/or pasta water if necessary. Congratulate yourself while pouring a bourbon. Ice down your purple knee.

or

2. Be civilized. Taste for seasoning; then add olive oil and/pasta water if necessary. Turn the pasta into waiting bowls, which you’ve remembered to heat in a low oven.  Gently ladle the sauce over pasta. Pour each diner a glass of Barolo, which you have decanted at least an hour earlier, into appropriate stemware. Discreetly swallow two ibruprofen, which of course will completely eradicate the minor joint pain you suffer from running all those fund-raising marathons.

Either way, serve pasta with Parmesan cheese, crusty bread, and a green salad (if you’re being healthy).

Pasta with chickpeas and spinach will keep, refrigerated, about three days.

Notes:

I added three thinly sliced pieces of Capocollo, a spicy salami, to the dish. Feel free to add another kind of ham, some sliced cooked chicken, or no meat at all.

No chicken broth? Low salt vegetable broth or water will work.  Or mix white wine with broth.