Orecchiette is the defining pasta shape of Puglia — made fresh daily in the Bari Vecchia (old town of Bari) by nonnas who sit outside their homes on small stools, rolling and shaping orecchiette by hand at incredible speed. The shape is made by dragging a small piece of dough across a rough wooden board with a knife, then inverting the resulting curved disk over the thumb to create the concave ear shape. Tourists come specifically to watch this being done.
The combination of orecchiette and cime di rapa is so fundamental to Pugliese identity that it appears on every restaurant menu in the region and is considered the canonical first course of Pugliese cuisine. It is also a dish that improves with good ingredients and worsens with substitutions — the bitterness of proper cime di rapa is the point, not a problem to be eliminated.
Cime di Rapa vs Broccoli
Cime di rapa (turnip tops) is a different vegetable from broccoli or broccolini:
- More bitter (assertively so — this is intentional)
- Slender flowering tops with tender leaves and small florets
- Wilts quickly in the water and becomes integrated into the sauce
- Available in Italian grocery stores in autumn and winter
Substitutes: Broccolini (less bitter) or rapini (closer in flavor). Broccoli is too mild and its texture is wrong — it doesn't integrate with the pasta in the same way.
The One-Pot Technique
Traditional method: The cime di rapa is added to boiling salted water first and cooked a few minutes; then the orecchiette are added to the same pot and cooked together until both are ready simultaneously. The water becomes flavorful, bitter, and green — this water is then used to finish the sauce.
This technique produces a more unified dish than cooking separately: the pasta absorbs some of the vegetable's flavor during cooking, and the starchy pasta water bound with the vegetable cooking liquid creates a coherent sauce rather than separate components combined.
The Complete Recipe
Serves: 4 | Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 400g dried orecchiette (or fresh if available)
- 400g cime di rapa (turnip tops / broccoli rabe), tough stems discarded, washed
- 6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 small dried red chili (peperoncino) or ½ teaspoon chili flakes
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons toasted breadcrumbs (pangrattato) — optional but excellent
- Salt for pasta water
- No cheese — the anchovy provides the savory depth; Parmesan with fish is traditional non si fa
Pangrattato (Toasted Breadcrumbs)
In a dry pan over medium heat, fry 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs in 2 tablespoons olive oil until golden and crispy. Set aside.
Method
1. Build the sauce base: Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add garlic and chili; cook 2 minutes until the garlic is golden. Add anchovy fillets; cook 1–2 minutes, stirring, until they completely dissolve into the oil.
2. Cook vegetables: Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add cime di rapa; cook 3 minutes.
3. Add pasta: Add orecchiette to the same pot with the cime di rapa; cook together until the pasta is al dente (follow package time, minus 1 minute). Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water.
4. Combine: Using a spider or slotted spoon, transfer the pasta and cime di rapa (with some cooking water clinging) to the anchovy pan; toss vigorously over medium heat, adding pasta water as needed to create a sauce that coats the pasta. The cime di rapa should break down slightly and integrate.
5. Serve: Scatter with toasted breadcrumbs immediately before serving.
Related reading: Carbonara Roman Pasta Guide | Pesto Genovese Guide | Ribollita Tuscan Bread Bean Soup Guide
The full recipes live in the book.
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