Orecchiette fresh pasta with rapini greens

• 10 minutes to prepare • 15 minutes to cook • Serves 4

 

10 MINUTES 

A regional recipe which is an institution for all pasta lovers: orecchiette with rapini greens!
From Apulia with fury, orecchiette seduced millions of Italians. Orecchiette is a typical pasta from Bari, the main town of that region. It is handmade almost daily by local housewives, and served with few different seasonings: rapini greens, but also with cauliflower, broccoli and other vegetables. Less frequently, you can find orecchiette with ragu.

The recipe with rapini greens is the most famous recipe featuring orecchiette. Easy to cook, this sauce is an authentic worship dish, a must for any traveler across Apulia. Orecchiette combine the taste of fresh and healthy vegetables with the umami trait of anchovy fillets, and become a true delight for the palate. As usually on Tuesdays, we will be ready in 10 minutes.

Here's what you will need for the 4-serving recipe:

400 g Orecchiette fresh pasta
1 kg rapini greens
1 clove garlic
8 anchovy fillets in oil
2 dried hot chili peppers
salt
EVO oil

1. To prepare the orecchiette pasta with rapini greens, start by cleaning the rapini: remove damaged leaves and the external stems which are hard and fibrous. Keep aside both the leaves and the inner stems
2. Take the stems and free all the rapini florets from the core, one by one. Remove the outer part of the core and cut the internal part, white and tender, into small pieces
3. Boil water in a pot, add salt and once started to bubble, pour the rapini leaves
4. After 5 minutes, when leaves are slightly softened, pour orecchiette fresh pasta. Follow the time instructions reported on the package: usually fresh pasta is ready in about 5 minutes. At that time, rapini leaves should be crunchy and pasta should be al dente
5. Meanwhile, prepare the pasta sauce: in a pan pour 3 tablespoons of EVO oil, add the garlic clove finely chopped (I personally prefer to use it unchopped to flavor the oil and then to remove it). Make it toast over medium heat until it becomes golden, then turn off the heat and add the anchovy fillets. Stir well until they melt
6. Add rapini stems in the pot with orecchiette and leaves, and stir well. It will take about 3 minutes for the stems to be ready
7. Pick up a ladle of cooking water and keep aside, then drain well the orecchiette pasta and the rapini greens. Pour them into the pan with the anchovy sauce
8. Stir over high heat for a few minutes to flavor the orecchiette; if pasta looks dry, add some cooking water. Then, turn off the heat and add chopped chili peppers. Your orecchiette with rapini greens are ready to be served piping hot!
   

In the following, Nutrition Facts of this dish are indicated. Data is provided per serving.

Ce chiande cemedecòle, non nascene cemederèpe*
(proverb from Apulia) 

*If you plant cauliflowers, you do not get rapini greens