cronicles della mia cucina: hummus!

so, being a vegetarian in italy is un po' dificile.  vegetarianism is a concept that they don't quite understand here -- you know, they like eating the animals.  so! while they cook loads of things at school with only veggies -- i was getting sick of eating just pasta/rice/another starch with various sauces at home for dinners.  i was missing my veggie foods that consisted of things other than pasta, veggies, and sauce. 

nothing a quick google search of "how to make hummus" couldn't solve! 

now, i had heard that finding tahini (an ingredient that is essential to hummus production) in bella italia was difficult if not impossible. however, the coolest little bio store down the street did not fail me and has jars of tahini for very cheap. success #1! 

i half followed recipes, and half made it up along the way but essentially, i sauteed a red pepper (because i couldn't find already roasted red peppers) and then mixed everything together in our little hand mixer device (production would be much easier with a food processor, however, we don't have one and i don't want to buy one).  

what is "everything"? i used:

1 can of chickpeas

1/3 cup of tahini

1 or 2 lemons worth of juice

2 tbls olive oil (it's good to use the oil from the jar of red peppers, if you get them already roasted)

1/2 c - 3/4 c of roasted red peppers (i roasted mine with peperoncino)

tobasco sauce (to taste -- this is the crucial ingredient)

then you mix everything together! 

mix as much as you like based on how smooth you like it (haha?)

and enjoy! 

since the first red-pepper hummus experience, i've made multiple other kinds of hummus including pesto hummus and black bean hummus (i found black beans! so exciting).

you can really just put whatever you want in with the chickpea mixture and it should be delicious.

xo!