Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa
Puglia · pasta · serves 4 · 30 min total · easy
Bari's grand pasta. Orecchiette ('little ears') are hand-dragged on wooden boards by women in via Arco Basso, the old quarter — a sight you can still see daily.
Ingredients
- 400 g orecchiette (preferably fresh)
- 800 g cime di rapa / broccoli rabe
- 4 fillets salt-packed anchovies
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp red chilli flakes
- 4 tbsp toasted breadcrumbs
- 80 ml olive oil
- 1 tbsp salt
Method
- Trim the rapa, keep tender stems and florets and leaves. Wash.
- Boil salted water. Cook orecchiette and rapa together — 6 minutes for fresh, more for dry.
- While they cook, warm olive oil with sliced garlic, chilli, anchovies in a wide pan. Mash the anchovies until dissolved.
- Lift pasta and rapa together into the pan with a slotted spoon (a splash of pasta water comes too). Toss hard 1 minute.
- Plate, shower with toasted breadcrumbs (the Puglian poor man's parmesan).