Orecchiette, the pasta shaped like an ear, plus cime di rapa, what we know as rapini or broccoli raab, makes for a quintessential Pugliese dish when brought together in the pot. Broccoli raab has a lovely subtle bitterness that makes it more interesting than broccoli to me. I make it a lot at home. I find it’s a good remedy to a touchy stomach.
But I have to say, I’m really looking forward to experiencing it again in Puglia to remind me of the apex of the form. Because in Italy, there is always discussion about whose way is the way, and why your way isn’t it.
My friend Elizabeth Minchilli is married to a man from Bari, and so had to teach herself the way of the mother-in-law. The following instructions are hers with some asides from me. This is one of those Italian pasta dishes that is more a gestalt than a recipe. And while it seems like it would be dead simple to make, especially since you cook the greens and pasta together in the pot, as usual with Italian pastas, the success is in the tiny details. If you would prefer a recipe that separates the cooking of the greens from that of the pasta, this one from Serious Eats is pretty similar to what I do.
Cime di Rapa is known as broccoli raab or rapini in the U.S. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
Begin with preparing your greens. Cime di rapa is a flowering broccoli with a thick stem topped by the head, or “cima,” that looks broccoli-ish. Minchilli admonishes us to carefully prepare them for cooking: “You only want the tenderest of the leaves and the flowering heads. The thick stalks get thrown away.” The broccoli raab we get here in supermarkets has pretty tender stems, so I just trim off the tougher parts of the bottom of the stalk. I like to cut the stalk across into large pieces, and leave the tops intact with a nice bit of stem. Mince two to three garlic cloves, and set aside four to six anchovy filets. Minchilli likes to use anchovies packed in salt for this. They need to be soaked in water for 10 minutes “Then carefully open up, taking out the central bones, and rinsing them off.” I’m addicted to Agostino Recca’s spicy anchovies in olive oil, so I use those.
When you’re ready to eat, put that pot of water for pasta on the stove. Add salt. When it’s boiling, add the orecchiette, which I’m assuming is dried pasta, and set a timer for five minutes. When the timer goes off, add the broccoli raab to the pasta, and let it come to a lively simmer.
Meanwhile, generously drizzle good olive oil in a saute pan big enough to hold the pasta and greens. Add the anchovies, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes for taste to the pan, and gently allow them to cook and marry together, mashing the anchovies with a wooden spoon. Be careful not to brown the garlic.
Minchilli tells us, “After the pasta has cooked for about 12 minutes total, start checking it. Orecchiette is a tricky pasta to get right. You want it to be cooked through, but still chewy. They will be more ‘al dente’ than other kinds [of pasta].” Set aside a cup of pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and greens in a colander. Add the cooked pasta and greens to the pan, and gently heat so that the pasta and greens absorb the flavored oil and cooked garlic, anchovy, and chile flakes. Add a tablespoon or so of pasta cooking water if the dish seems dry. Adding grated cheese to this dish is not traditional, but you do you. If you have to add cheese, please use pecorino instead of parmigiano.
One addition I like in the Serious Eats recipe is that of toasted garlicky breadcrumbs. They were a staple at my restaurant Angeli, and I think they add a nice textural difference to the traditional dish.