Caldo de Garbanzos Rociados

Note: Instructions in normal letters are pretty clear in the original. My interpretations are in italics. 

Ingredients for 8 bowls

• 1,5 pounds (approx. 680 grams) of chickpeas (dry or soaked-weight? My guess is that it should be soaked, ready to cook weight)
• 0,5 oz. (14 grams) fine flour
• a bit of good cooking oil
• salt
• 20 grains (balls) of pepper, milled
• some powdered cinnamon
• sage
• rosemary
• parsley roots

 

To make it

Wash the chickpeas with hot water (what for?) and place them in a pot. When they are dry (cooked until there’s hardly any water left? or just left to dry a bit?) add the flour, a bit of oil, salt and the crushed pepper and cinnamon. Stir well.

Add three jugs of water, sage, rosemary and parsley root.

Cook it until it is reduced until the right volume – 8 bowls (?). Just before it is finished, add another bit of oil.

Note: the version for ill people has no oil and no spices.
 

My experiences

• 410 grams (almost 1 pound) of chickpeas
• 8 grams (1/2 oz) of flour (a not quite full spoonful)
• olive oil
• 12 grains of pepper, cinnamon, sage, rosemary and salt

I cooked it until the chickpeas were soft and the whole thing had the appearance of a soup (lots of broth, chickpeas here and there). The flavour was not too exciting but maybe because I had no parsley root. I also suspect that the sage I bought was too old because I have read that sage should have quite a strong taste, which was not the case.
I will be trying again when I get the spices right.
The recipe is interesting anyway because it specifies the quantities of almost all ingredients including the pepper (I don’t know what the standard volume of jug was in Martino’s time). I must say the pepper amount was quite low and the taste mild.

Note: 100 grams of dry chickpeas expanded to 225 grams once soaked overnight. This may change according to variety but may help in choosing the amount.
 

Update

It seems that medieval soups were generally thick affairs, not as liquid as we take them now. I got this from either Scully's "Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages" or Barbara Santich's "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine. So that's something else to change when making this soup. That will probably solve the lack of a definite taste.