Mesciua, a tasty legume soup that derives from the tradition of sailing.

FOR 4 PEOPLE

Ingredients

200 g of spelt

200 g of dried white beans

200 g of dried chickpeas

2 cloves of garlic

Salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil from western Liguria

Directions

Let the spelt, chickpeas and beans soak separately for 12 hours.

Drain the spelt and put it into a pot, possibly an earthenware one, with a lid, that must be filled 2/3 with cold water. Combine the two cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half.

Cook the spelt over low heat: halfway through cooking, add chickpeas and beans.

Top up if necessary, always with boiling water.

At the end of cooking, if the soup has too much broth, cook without a lid to evaporate the water because Mesciua must not be very liquid.

Serve lukewarm, topping with oil and pepper.

According to the local tradition this is a dish that derives from the tradition of sailing (Imperia is also the city of several captains who have rounded Cape Horn), when sailors were scraping the bottom of the sacks or the barrels to prepare food, already close to the landing and almost running out of foodstuffs on the boat.

Therefore, mesciua would mean a mixture of legumes and cereals; of course it is perplexing if you think that Mechoni is the name of a traditional Arab dish that defines a barbecue.