Puglia — orecchiette con cime di rapa is so strongly associated with Bari that the handmade orecchiette of the Via delle Orecchiette (a street in Bari Vecchia where women still make orecchiette outside their houses and sell them daily) is one of the most famous Italian food photographs. The preparation is pan-Pugliese but the handmade tradition is specifically Barese.
Orecchiette con cime di rapa is the definitive Pugliese primo and one of the great combinations in Italian cooking — the small, ear-shaped pasta (orecchiette, named for their resemblance to small ears) made from semolina and water is cooked together with the blanched, bitter turnip tops (cime di rapa — rapini, broccoli rabe), the cime di rapa dissolved into the cooking water creating an intensely flavoured, slightly bitter-green pasta water that becomes the sauce. Anchovy, garlic, and peperoncino are the flavouring; no tomato. The bitterness of the cime di rapa is not something to be moderated — it is the point.
Orecchiette con cime di rapa in the bowl is dark green and fragrant — the bitter-green flavour of the cime di rapa permeates everything. The pasta has absorbed the cooking water's bitterness and dark colour; the anchovy has dissolved into the oil and provides invisible depth; the garlic and peperoncino add warmth. The final raw olive oil is the DOP Pugliese finish that brightens everything. It is one of the most vivid preparations in Italian cooking.
Orecchiette dough: 300g semola rimacinata, water, salt — mix to a firm dough; knead 10 minutes; rest. Roll into ropes; cut 1.5cm pieces. With a blunt knife, drag each piece toward you with slight pressure — the dough curls up around the knife to form the ear shape. Invert by pressing on a thumb. For the sauce: blanch cime di rapa (broccoli rabe) 3 minutes in salted boiling water — reserve this water. Fry garlic slices, anchovy fillets (3-4 per portion), and peperoncino in olive oil until the anchovy dissolves. Add the blanched cime di rapa; sauté briefly. Cook orecchiette in the broccoli rabe water (which provides intense flavour and colour); drain with some water retained; toss with the rapa sauce. Finish with raw olive oil.
Cime di rapa (broccoli rabe, rapini) are widely available in Italian, Middle Eastern, and specialist greengrocers in the UK; they are in season autumn through spring. The bitterness of cime di rapa is one of the most important flavour experiences in Italian cooking — do not try to moderate it by blanching for longer; it is the preparation's identity. The final raw olive oil drizzle is essential.
Discarding the broccoli rabe cooking water — this water, intensely flavoured with cime di rapa, is the most flavourful part of the preparation; the pasta must cook in it. Overcooking the cime di rapa — two stages of cooking (blanching, then sautéing) are manageable; a third cooking when added to the pasta is the correct sequence. Using broccoli instead of cime di rapa — broccoli florets are not cime di rapa; the bitter, slightly pungent quality of turnip tops is irreplaceable.
Oretta Zanini de Vita, Encyclopedia of Pasta; Slow Food Editore, Puglia in Cucina