P
Italian · Bari
Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa e Acciughe Pugliesi
The definitive orecchiette preparation: handmade orecchiette with bitter turnip tops (cime di rapa/broccoli rabe) and anchovy. The orecchiette and cime di rapa are cooked in the same water — the pasta is added to the cime di rapa's boiling water, and both are drained together. The dish is dressed with a sauce of anchovies dissolved in olive oil with garlic and optional chilli. The bitter green, the salty-umami anchovy, and the olive oil richness are the three legs of this preparation. Orecchiette made from semolina and water, shaped by dragging a blunt knife across a dough rope.
I
The Market List
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For the orecchiette
400 g
semola rimacinata di grano duro
fine re-milled semolina; no egg
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 ml
water
lukewarm
Your own market
600 g
cime di rapa (broccoli rabe)
florets and, for a more bitter character, the thicker stems
Origin · ItalyBosa Foods · Vancouver →
8
anchovy fillets in oil
best quality salt-packed or oil-packed; drained
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
100 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
Pugliese if available; assertive quantity
Your own market
2
garlic cloves
peeled and lightly crushed; to be removed before serving
Your own market
1
dried red chilli
optional; crumbled
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tbsp
coarse sea salt
for the cooking water
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Combine the semola rimacinata with lukewarm water on a wooden board and work the dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky — approximately 10 minutes of firm kneading. Wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. The dough is ready when it holds a fingerprint cleanly without springing back.
2
Roll the rested dough into ropes of roughly 1 cm diameter. Cut a 1 cm piece from the rope. Place a blunt knife at 45 degrees on the piece and drag it firmly toward you: the dough rolls around the knife tip and flicks up into a small ear. Work across a lightly floured board and lay completed orecchiette in a single layer to dry slightly. The surface must feel rough and slightly tacky — that texture is what makes the sauce adhere.
3
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil. Add the cime di rapa — florets and stems — and cook for 5 minutes. Add the orecchiette directly to the same water without draining the greens. Cook until the pasta is al dente. Reserve a ladleful of the cooking liquid before draining. The water should smell of the bitter vegetable; that bitterness is entering the pasta.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies: warm the olive oil in a wide pan over low heat. Add the garlic and, if using, the chilli. When the oil is fragrant and the garlic is pale gold, add the anchovy fillets. Press and stir with a wooden spoon until the anchovies dissolve entirely into the oil — no visible pieces remain. Remove and discard the garlic. The oil should appear slightly cloudy and unified, carrying a deep, saline, round aroma with no raw fish note.
5
Drain the orecchiette and cime di rapa together and transfer immediately to the pan with the anchovy oil. Toss over medium heat, adding the reserved pasta water a little at a time until the olive oil and anchovy emulsify into a sauce that coats every piece. The surface of the orecchiette should shine; each cup should hold a floret and a pool of oil. Serve at once in warm, deep bowls.
From the canon — Pasta cooking water contains dissolved starch (released from the pasta surface during boiling) at a concentration that increases with pasta-to-water ratio an… Pasta Water: Starch Concentration and Sauce Binding →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Orecchiette hand-shaped from stone-milled Pugliese semola rimacinata; salt-packed anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea or Sicilian coast, rinsed and filleted; cold-pressed DOP Pugliese extra-virgin olive oil from Coratina olives; cime di rapa cut that morning at market.
02
Estate — Home-made orecchiette from commercial semola rimacinata; good-quality oil-packed anchovy fillets; a serious southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil; cime di rapa from a trusted greengrocer.
03
Market — Dried factory orecchiette (acceptable in shape, though the surface is smoother); oil-packed anchovy fillets of reliable brand; a clean, mid-weight extra-virgin olive oil; broccoli rabe from a supermarket.
04
House — Dried orecchiette; any anchovy fillets in oil; standard supermarket olive oil; cime di rapa or, at a remove, tenderstem broccoli — the bitter-green element must remain, even if the variety changes.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Rested dough holds a fingerprint without springing back and no longer sticks to the board.
◇Touch. Shaped orecchiette feel rough and slightly tacky on the board — the semolina texture that makes sauce cling.
◇Smell. The cooking water smells distinctly of bitter vegetable before the pasta is added — the sign that the cime di rapa has released its character into the liquid.
◇Sight. No anchovy pieces are visible in the oil — the sauce appears slightly cloudy and unified in the pan.
◇Sight. Each orecchiette shines with emulsified oil and cups at least one floret; the sauce pools in the hollow rather than pooling on the plate.
◇Where it lives or dies. The anchovies must dissolve completely into the warm olive oil before the pasta arrives — visible pieces or undissolved fragments mean the dish has failed its central task.
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