🥬 Orecchiette alle cime di rapa

Orecchiette alle cime di rapa is the best-known dish of Apulia: orecchiette pasta cooked together with cime di rapa, the tender tops and florets of the turnip plant (broccoli rabe), and dressed with olive oil, garlic, chilli and anchovies. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina calls it the symbol dish of the city of Bari.

Orecchiette, the Accademia writes, are the traditional fresh pasta of Apulia, made with durum wheat semolina or type 0 flour; orecchiette containing some 'grano arso' flour are now fashionable too, made from wheat once burnt with the stubble after harvest, dark and slightly smoky. They are served with sharp sheep's ricotta forte, wild rocket, cacioricotta cheese or a ragù of 'brasciole' rolls sprinkled with grated pecorino, but the most classic dressing is turnip tops with anchovies melted in extra virgin olive oil.

The Accademia recipe for four: 400 g of homemade orecchiette, 1.5 kg of cime di rapa, 4 salted anchovy fillets, 2 garlic cloves, chilli, extra virgin olive oil and salt. Only the tender tops are used, washed carefully in cold water. Five litres of water are brought to the boil, the greens go in and, a few minutes later, the orecchiette; everything is drained very al dente. Meanwhile the oil is heated in a pan with the garlic and chilli, the anchovies, boned and crushed to a paste, are added, followed by the orecchiette and greens; everything is tossed well and served at once, with more oil if needed.

The Accademia advises watching how tender the greens are: if they are very young, it is better to put the orecchiette in first and the turnip tops later, or the greens will fall apart before the pasta is cooked.