The first thing to do is to finely dice the onion, carrot, and celery so that it's roughly the same size as the lentils. Slice the garlic thinly. Then wash the lentils to remove any unwanted debris.
Get a large dutch oven on medium heat and then add the pancetta. You can add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to help get it going but we want to cook it rather slowly and render out all that delicious fat that will help flavor this dish, so take your time and render out the fat and cook it until the meat begins to brown you and start seasoning the bottom of the pan with yummy brown bits, that stuff is called fond that you always here chefs talk about. That's good stuff you want to develop. Once the meat is browned, toss in the diced carrot celery, and onions. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. The moisture in those vegetables will deglaze any of that seasoning you may have developed, which is okay, we’re going to start to build it back up again, concentrating all that flavor.
Cook until the water cooks out of the vegetables and gets evaporated then add the garlic and chili and a little more oil and allow that garlic to toast, maybe 2-3 more minutes.
Then add the tomato pasta and mix it in and toast it to cook out the rawness. The seasoning on the bottom of the pan should start browning even further, and once it's really nicely browned, but making sure it's not burning, then deglaze with a cup or two of the wine and scrape up all the seasoning on the pan.
Reduce that wine down by half and then add in the lentils, then add in about a cup of the tomato puree or passata and get it all mixed up and then add 3 cups of broth, plus 3 cups of water, the thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf and bring it up to a boil, then drop it down to a low simmer, place a lid on and then cook for about 30 minutes before checking again.
After 30 minutes, remove the lid and then fish out the bay leaf and the herbs. Give the lentils a taste, they are still a little crunchy.
There’s enough moisture to continue to cook the lentils as is, but we need to cook the pasta in the pot as well so we will need more water, about another 3 cups then get the lid back on and cook the lentils for another 10-15 minutes until the lentils become tender.
Once tender, remove the lid and totally optionally, you can either take a hand blender and blitz the mixture a few times to thicken it slightly, or you can use a blender to puree a small bit of the lentils, it just helps control the final consistency and creaminess.
Then bring the mixture up to a rolling simmer and add the pasta. Once the pasta is in it's going to cook sorta like a risotto, which means it's going to cook a lot slower than the box will say and you going to need to stir it almost constantly to ensure the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Keep stirring and season as needed, the lentils suck up a lot of salt and the pasta is cooking in that liquid so you really want to make sure you carefully season this dish properly.
Then once the pasta is fully cooked but still has some nice bounce and texture to it, turn off the heat, stir in a tablespoon of cold unsalted butter until fully melted, then work in about 1 1/2 cups of Parmigiano. It should be thickened but flowing and should be pleasantly creamy. If it’s too thick, add a bit of water, if it’s too thin adjust by thickening it with more cheese.
The final consistency is kind of up to you, you may like it thicker, or you may like it thinner. Then plate in a bowl with some good olive oil and a bit more cheese and dig in. Serve with some good crusty bread. Not only is this dish wonderfully comforting and satisfying on a cold January night, but eating it will give you great luck in 2023.
