Classic Pugliese Orecchiette With Broccoli Rabe and Toasty Breadcrumbs

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Why It Works

  • Blanching the broccoli rabe leaves and florets shortly within the pasta cooking water earlier than including them to the skillet with the orecchiette to complete cooking ensures tenderness and retains their vibrant shade.
  • Anchovies add savory depth to the dish with out making it style fishy.
  • Toasting well-seasoned breadcrumbs with garlic and loads of olive oil makes them a worthy stand-in for grated cheese, which was traditionally too costly to make use of in cucina povera.

Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, is a picturesque area recognized for its prolific wine and olive oil manufacturing. It is also a traditionally poor space. This mixture of agricultural abundance and financial shortage is what produced the Pugliese cucina povera, the “poor delicacies” that, out of necessity, depends on native, cheap elements and culinary know-how that is been handed down by the generations. Orecchiette con le cime di rapa, which interprets as “orecchiette with turnip greens,” is a regional treasure that is emblematic of this conventional cooking fashion.

Cime di rapa are the leafy inexperienced tops and leaves of the plant that we all know as broccoli rabe within the States. Up to now, when farmers needed to promote the lion’s share of their produce to wealthier areas, they’d cook dinner up the less-desirable discards, resembling these turnip tops, to make their very own meals. All three elements of the broccoli rabe (often known as rapini) plant —the stems, leaves, and florets—are edible. Whereas the stems are scrumptious ready in any variety of methods (roasted, sautéed, or blended right into a punchy, inexperienced purée), their toothsome texture is just not fascinating for this dish. So, for this recipe, we separate the tender florets and leaves from the stalks, which may be reserved for an additional use. The cime di rapa are calmly blanched in boiling water which is able to later be used for cooking the pasta. Giving the rabe a head begin like this softens it, and helps it flip right into a velvety sauce later within the cooking course of.

Orecchiette is a Pugliese specialty, the place the “little ears” are at all times handmade with recent semolina-water dough (in southern Italy, eggs have been traditionally too costly for use for pasta-making). In Bari, the capital of the area, this historical past actually comes alive while you stroll down via dell’Arco Basso, generally often called the “strada delle orecchiette” (orecchiette road, which supplies Sesame Road a run for its cash in my e book), with ladies making pasta outside. They muscle by the dough, rolling snakes of it on century-old picket boards, then lower it and form every particular person piece of pasta over their thumbs earlier than tossing the orecchiette onto screens to air-dry within the scorching metropolis solar. They’ve been making orecchiette the identical means for generations, generally chopping the dough with hundred-year-old desk knives, as one lady confirmed me. The method is each easy and profoundly nuanced.

Whereas it is advisable to use recent pasta to make a really conventional orecchiette con le cime di rapa, do not fret: You can also make one thing virtually as scrumptious with dried orecchiette. You simply want to offer the sauce a bit of additional love. The sauce begins with garlic, anchovies, and chiles that are cooked in a beneficiant quantity of olive oil till the anchovies have dissolved. Among the rabe cooking water will get added to the skillet, and the combination is delivered to a boil whereas being swirled and stirred to kind an emulsion. The cooked greens and pasta are added to the combo together with some additional, now-starchy cooking water. A high-heat end involving loads of tossing and stirring produces a creamy sauce with tender rabe that coats the pasta, with the bitterness of the greens enjoying off the peppery olive oil and savory anchovies.

There’s one factor you’ll by no means see on a plate of orecchiette con le cime di rapa: grated cheese. Aged cheeses (Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, and the like) are one other instance of luxurious elements that do not function prominently within the cucina povera custom. As an alternative, you will discover pastas garnished with toasted pangrattato, bread crumbs constructed from leftover stale bread cooked in olive oil. It is the proper crunchy topping for this iconic Pugliese dish.

March 2021

Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa (Apulian Orecchiette With Broccoli Rabe) Recipe



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For the Breadcrumbs:

  • 4 ounces (115g) rustic bread, lower into 3/4- to 1-inch items

  • 1 garlic clove (5g), minced

  • 2 tablespoons (30ml) extra-virgin olive oil

  • Kosher salt and freshly floor black pepper

For the Pasta:

  • 1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

  • 4 anchovy fillets (5g)

  • 3 garlic cloves (15g), minced

  • 1/2 teaspoon pink pepper flakes

  • 12 ounces (340g) dried orecchiette

  • 1 pound (450g) broccoli rabe (rapini), leaves and florets picked from stalks, stalks discarded or reserved for an additional use (see word)

  1. For the Toasted Breadcrumbs: If utilizing recent or calmly stale bread, alter oven rack to center place, and preheat oven to 325°F (165°C). (If utilizing absolutely stale and dried bread, skip baking step.) Organize bread in single layer on rimmed baking sheet, and bake till fully dried, 20 to half-hour. Take away from oven, and permit to chill to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Switch bread to meals processor bowl (put aside however do not clear rimmed baking sheet), and pulse till diminished to small crumbs, taking care to not over-process right into a high-quality powder, 8 to 10 pulses.

  2. Mix breadcrumbs, garlic, and a couple of tablespoons (30ml) oil in a big skillet, and cook dinner over medium-low warmth, stirring and tossing often, till crisp and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to style. Switch toasted breadcrumbs to reserved rimmed baking sheet, unfold into an excellent layer, and put aside to chill to room temperature. Wipe out skillet.

    Severe Eats / Sasha Marx


  3. For the Pasta: Carry a big pot of salted water to a boil over excessive warmth. In the meantime, mix 1/4 cup (60ml) oil, anchovies, and garlic in now-empty skillet. Prepare dinner over medium-low warmth, stirring and breaking apart anchovies often with a picket spoon, till anchovies have dissolved and garlic has softened and is simply starting to show calmly golden, about 5 minutes. Add pink pepper flakes and proceed to cook dinner, stirring, till aromatic, about 30 seconds. Take away skillet from warmth.

    Severe Eats / Sasha Marx


  4. Add broccoli rabe to boiling water and cook dinner, stirring steadily to maintain submerged, till floret stems are barely tender and leaves have softened, about 1 minute. Utilizing a spider skimmer, fine-mesh strainer, or massive slotted spoon, drain rabe whereas retaining boiling water within the pot; switch rabe to a plate and put aside.

    Severe Eats / Sasha Marx


  5. Add orecchiette to boiling water and cook dinner, stirring steadily for first 30 seconds to stop pasta from sticking. As soon as pasta has cooked for five minutes, switch 1 cup (240ml) of pasta cooking water to skillet; proceed cooking pasta. Return skillet to excessive warmth and convey to a boil, swirling pan and stirring continually till cooking water emulsifies with olive oil-anchovy combination, 1 to 2 minutes. Cut back warmth to low whereas pasta finishes cooking to stop liquid from over-reducing.

    Severe Eats / Sasha Marx


  6. In the meantime, proceed cooking pasta till it’s softened on the outside, however nicely shy of al dente and nonetheless raw within the middle (about 3 minutes lower than the package deal instructions). Utilizing a spider skimmer, switch pasta to skillet together with reserved broccoli rabe. Alternatively, drain pasta utilizing a colander or fine-mesh strainer, ensuring to order no less than 2 cups (475ml) pasta cooking water.

    Severe Eats / Sasha Marx


  7. Enhance warmth to excessive and cook dinner, stirring and tossing quickly, till pasta is al dente and sauce is thickened and coats noodles, 2 to three minutes, including extra pasta cooking water in 1/4 cup (60ml) increments as wanted. At this level, the sauce ought to simply pool across the edges of the pan; it would proceed to tighten up within the time it takes to plate and serve, so make sure that it is a bit of looser than the perfect serving consistency. Season with salt to style.

    Severe Eats / Sasha Marx


  8. Take away from warmth, divide pasta between particular person serving bowls, drizzle generously with olive oil, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and serve immediately.

Particular Tools

Food processor, large skillet, fine-mesh strainer or spider skimmer

Notes

In Italy, toasted breadcrumbs are historically made with pangrattato—breadcrumbs made by processing stale bread. This recipe is written with directions for making breadcrumbs from recent or stale bread. We used a country sourdough loaf throughout recipe testing, however most forms of crusty white bread will work high-quality.

This dish is greatest made with simply the fragile leaves and florets of broccoli rabe; the fibrous stalks are discarded. Should you don’t need to discard the stalks, you should use them for an additional function: Trim the ends, lower the stalks into 1 to 2 inch lengths and roast or sauté them with different greens. Or thinly slice them, sauté in olive oil, and fold them into omelettes or scrambled eggs. They may also be was a barely bitter however scrumptious purée: Prepare dinner stalks in salted boiling water till tender, then mix with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt till easy. The purée can be utilized as-is or blended with ricotta as a pasta sauce of its personal.

Make-Forward and Storage

This dish is greatest loved instantly. Leftover toasted breadcrumbs may be saved in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as 1 week.

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