Vinson Petrillo’s Fresh Chickpea Spread with Crispy Black Olives

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Pantry Essential: BEANS

After we shot this recipe for the cookbook, the leftovers disappeared quickly. Every time one of us walked by this spread, we dipped whatever we could in it—leftover veggies, scraps of bread, a straight-up spoon! It’s just so fresh and delicious. Which was no surprise, because it’s Vinson Petrillo’s recipe.

Vinson is the executive chef at Zero Café + Bar, which is in the prettiest hotel I’ve ever seen, Zero George in Charleston. Vinson has won a big television cooking show and appeared on another, but when I met him in his kitchen for the first time, he was a pretty low-key dude. He was focused on one thing: the food. This recipe is so versatile—if you can’t find fresh chickpeas, Vinson suggests using thawed frozen peas or fava beans and notes that you can also swap in any fresh herbs you have on hand in place of the dill.

1 pound fresh chickpeas (garbanzo beans), peeled

4 ounces baby spinach (about 4 cups)

1 garlic clove, chopped fine

Juice of 2 lemons

16 mint leaves

1 cup good-quality olive oil, plus more for serving

Sea salt and pepper

2 cups domestic black olives, pits removed

Grilled bread for serving

Handful fresh dill

Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and set a bowl of ice water nearby. Working in batches, blanch the chickpeas in the boiling water just until they are tender and bright green. Remove them from the pot and quickly shock them in the ice bath. Place the chickpeas in a food processor with the spinach, garlic, lemon juice, and mint. Turn the processor on high and begin slowly pouring the olive oil in a thin stream into the chickpea mixture so that it will emulsify. Once the mixture comes together, taste and season it with salt and pepper. Place it in an airtight container until you’re ready to serve.

If the olives are in brine, strain them to remove any moisture. Cut them in half and arrange them evenly on two dehydrator trays. Set the temperature to 160 degrees and leave them for 8 to 12 hours until they become hard. (If you do not own a dehydrator, arrange the olives on a cooling rack set on a sheet tray and put them in the oven at lowest possible temperature for 4 hours until crisp.) Once the olives have hardened, put them in the food processor and pulse until they resemble soil.

Serve the chickpea spread on grilled bread; carefully spoon some of the crispy olive soil on top. Garnish with fresh dill and a few drops of good-quality olive oil.

KITCHEN NOTES: If you don’t have time to dehydrate the olives, just dice them finely and press them with a clean kitchen towel to remove as much moisture as possible.