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Italian Recipe

Orecchiette alle Cime di Rapa

Bari’s street-made pasta with bitter turnip tops, anchovy, garlic, and chile: the dish that tastes like Puglia arguing with itself, deliciously.

Bari’s street-made pasta with bitter turnip tops, anchovy, garlic, and chile: the dish that tastes like Puglia arguing with itself, deliciously.

50 min Prep Time
20 min Cook Time
4 Servings
medium

Instructions

  1. Knead the semola with about 200 ml warm water and a pinch of salt into a firm dough; rest 20 minutes.

    30 min

  2. Roll thin ropes, cut hazelnut pieces, and drag each with a table knife across the board so it curls; invert over your thumb into a little ear. Park on semolina.

    40 min

  3. Strip the cime di rapa to florets and tender leaves; wash twice.

    12 min

  4. Toast the breadcrumbs golden in a spoonful of the oil; set aside. In the same wide pan, melt the anchovies into the remaining oil with garlic and chile over low heat.

    6 min

  5. Boil the orecchiette in well-salted water; after 3 minutes add the greens to the same pot and cook until pasta and stems are both tender, 4 to 5 minutes more.

    9 min

  6. Lift pasta and greens into the anchovy pan with a ladle of the green water and toss over lively heat until glossy and married.

    2 min

  7. Plate and crown with the toasted crumbs. Cheese stays in the cupboard; this is the breadcrumb’s night.

Chef's Tips

  • One pot is the recipe: Boiling greens and pasta together is not a shortcut, it is the flavor system: the water seasons the pasta and tames the bitterness in one move.
  • Drag with intent: The knife-drag gives each ear a rough face that grips the oil. Smooth, machine-perfect orecchiette slip; ugly ones eat better.
  • No cime di rapa in your latitude? Broccolini with a handful of arugula boiled in approximates the bitterness honorably for the exile months.

Nutrition Facts

Calories
635.34
Protein
22.08g
Carbohydrates
84.96g
Fat
22.72g
Fiber
10.27g

Per serving

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