P
Italian · Puglia
Orecchiette Cime di Rapa con Alici di Scoglio
The canonical Pugliese pasta preparation — hand-pressed orecchiette (little ears) cooked together with blanched cime di rapa (turnip tops) in the same water, dressed with a sauce of garlic, anchovy and olive oil, with a scattering of breadcrumbs (pangrattato) toasted in olive oil. The anchovy dissolves completely into the garlic oil, acting as an invisible umami amplifier for the bitter greens.
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
400 g
600 g
8
salt-packed anchovies
rinsed and filleted; Scoglio or Cetara preferred
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
4
garlic cloves
peeled and lightly crushed
Your own market
100 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
plus extra for the pangrattato
Your own market
1 tsp
dried chilli flakes
the traditional Barese addition
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the pangrattato
80 g
fine dry breadcrumbs
very fine; not coarse
Your own market
60 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
abundant — do not reduce
Your own market
1 tsp
fine sea salt
for the pasta water
Your own market
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II
The Method
1
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil. Add the cime di rapa. Cook for 5 minutes; the greens will wilt and their chlorophyll will colour the water a pale green — this coloured, flavoured water is integral to the dish.
2
After the cime di rapa have cooked for 5 minutes, add the orecchiette to the same pot. Cook the pasta and greens together for a further 10 minutes, or until the orecchiette are cooked through but retain a slight resistance. Reserve at least two ladlefuls of the cooking water before draining.
3
While the pasta cooks, warm the 100 ml olive oil in a wide pan over a very low flame. Add the garlic and chilli flakes. When the oil is barely warm — not frying, not spitting — lay in the anchovy fillets. Press them gently with a wooden spoon. This is where the dish lives or dies: the anchovies must dissolve entirely into the oil, becoming invisible, with no crisping, no browning, no bitterness; if the oil sizzles audibly, remove the pan from the heat and continue off-flame until the fillets have melted to nothing.
4
In a separate small pan, heat the 60 ml olive oil over a medium flame. Add the fine breadcrumbs and stir continuously. Fry until the pangrattato is a deep, uniform gold — the colour of toasted hazelnuts. Tip onto a plate and reserve uncovered. The crumbs must be dry, crisp and crunchy; pale or soft breadcrumbs have failed.
5
Drain the pasta and cime di rapa, then transfer them directly into the pan holding the anchovy oil. Add one ladleful of the reserved cooking water and toss over a medium flame for one to two minutes, adding more cooking water as needed, until the anchovy oil emulsifies around the pasta and greens in a cohesive, lightly sauced whole. The surface of the pasta should appear glossy rather than dry or pooled with oil.
6
Divide among four warmed bowls. Scatter the pangrattato generously over each portion at the moment of service. The breadcrumbs must be added at the last instant to preserve their crunch.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Fresh hand-pressed orecchiette from a Pugliese sfoglina; salt-packed whole anchovies from Scoglio or Cetara, rinsed and hand-filleted; young, peppery single-estate Pugliese olive oil; wild-gathered cime di rapa with tightly closed flower buds.
02
Estate — Good commercial fresh orecchiette; salt-packed anchovies from a reliable Italian producer; a named DOP Pugliese or southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil; cultivated cime di rapa, buds still closed.
03
Market — Dried orecchiette from a southern Italian producer; oil-packed Italian anchovy fillets, well drained; a sound everyday extra-virgin olive oil; fresh cime di rapa from a greengrocer.
04
House — Any dried orecchiette; any oil-packed anchovy fillets; generic extra-virgin olive oil; broccoli raab or young broccoli florets as a substitute for cime di rapa.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The pasta water is faintly green from the cime di rapa chlorophyll — this signals the water is properly seasoned and flavoured for co-cooking.
◇Sight. The anchovy fillets have vanished into the oil, leaving no visible solid matter — the sauce is ready.
◇Sight. The pangrattato is the colour of a toasted hazelnut, uniform and dry — it is done; any paler and it will be soft, any darker and it will be acrid.
◇Sight. The finished pasta is glossy and cohesive, neither dry nor pooled with loose oil — the emulsion with pasta water has succeeded.
◇Sound. The pangrattato gives a faint, audible crunch when the first forkful is taken — the breadcrumbs have held their texture to service.
◇Where it lives or dies. The anchovy must dissolve completely into barely warm oil — never fry; a pan that sizzles turns the anchovy bitter and ruins the sauce's invisible depth.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance