Italian Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe | Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa
This is the version Bari actually eats. No meat of any kind, no cream, no cheese on top unless somebody insists. Four ingredients carry the plate: orecchiette, cime di rapa, good olive oil and garlic, with peperoncino for heat and toasted crumbs for crunch. Everything depends on how the greens are cooked and what happens in the last minute in the pan.
The Barese method is not to blanch the greens first and the pasta after. Both go into the same pot, timed so they come out together, the orecchiette al dente and the cime di rapa soft enough to fall apart under a spoon. Part of the greens is then crushed into hot oil to become the sauce and the rest is left whole for texture, so one vegetable does two entirely different jobs on the plate.
Yield: 4 first course servings. Prep: 20 minutes. Cook: 15 minutes. Total: about 35 minutes. Difficulty: easy to intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Puglia, Bari and the Terra di Bari.
The Story
In Bari dialect the dish is strascinate con le cime di rape, and the older name matters because it names the gesture rather than the shape. Strascinare means to drag, which is what the knife does to the little cylinder of semola dough before a thumb turns it inside out. The pasta was never a luxury object: semola and water alone, no egg and no fat, because eggs were sold and fat was scarce.
The pairing with turnip tops is documented in Puglia from at least the sixteenth century and almost certainly older. Records of a Jewish community at Sannicandro di Bari mention a small ear shaped pasta, and the Provencal crosets brought south under Angevin rule are usually named as the ancestor. What is certain is the agricultural logic: durum wheat and brassicas grow in the same fields in the same months.
The meatless character is liturgical rather than dietary. Southern Italy kept a long calendar of lean days, and a dish of wheat, greens and oil was permitted on all of them, which is why it appears at Christmas Eve and through Lent in Bari. That is also why the strict version rejects cheese as well as meat: toasted breadcrumbs, the mollica, took the place of Pecorino in houses that had neither the money nor the permission.
Ingredients
For the pasta and the greens
Orecchiette, dried bronze drawn or fresh hand made, 14 oz (400 g)
Cime di rapa, broccoli rabe, untrimmed weight, 2 1/4 lb (1 kg)
Water, 6 quarts (5.7 l)
Coarse sea salt for the water, 2 1/2 tbsp (45 g)
For the garlic oil
Extra virgin olive oil, fruity southern style, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed, 5
Dried peperoncino, crumbled, 3/4 tsp (1.5 g)
For finishing
Stale country bread, grated into coarse crumbs, 1 1/2 cups (75 g)
Extra virgin olive oil for the crumbs, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Extra virgin olive oil for the plate, 2 tsp (10 ml)
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pecorino Romano, grated, 1/3 cup (30 g), optional and not traditional in Bari
Preparation
Toasting the mollica
Grate stale bread on the coarse side of a box grater, avoiding the crust, so the crumbs stay irregular. Warm 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pan over medium low heat, add the crumbs with a pinch of salt and stir for 4 to 5 minutes until deep gold and smelling of toast. Tip them onto a plate at once, since they keep colouring in a hot pan, and cool them completely.
Trimming the cime di rapa
Bend each stem until it snaps, which happens naturally where the fibre turns woody. Keep the flowering tops, the leaves and the upper stems, and split the thicker stems lengthwise so they cook at the rate of the leaves. Wash everything in cold water, agitate well and lift the greens out so the grit stays behind. Drain but do not dry them.
Salting and timing the water
Bring 6 quarts (5.7 l) of water to a rolling boil and add 2 1/2 tablespoons (45 g) of coarse salt, a full Italian hand, because the greens absorb a great deal and there is no cheese or cured meat to add salt later. Work out the timing before anything goes in: greens 6 to 7 minutes, dried orecchiette 11 to 13, fresh ones 6 to 8.
Cooking the pasta and the greens together
With dried pasta, the orecchiette go in first and the cime di rapa join them 5 minutes later. With fresh pasta, the greens go in first and the orecchiette 1 minute after. Stir once so the pasta does not settle, keep the water at a strong boil and cook until the orecchiette are firm at the centre and the greens collapse under pressure. Reserve 2 cups (475 ml) of water before draining both together.
Infusing the garlic oil
While the pot works, warm the 1/2 cup of oil in a wide skillet over low heat with the crushed garlic and the peperoncino. The oil should never shimmer or smoke, only move gently around the cloves. Give it 6 to 8 minutes, turning them, until they are pale gold and soft. Fish them out, or crush one back into the oil if you want the dish louder. This oil is the only sauce base there is.
Crushing part of the greens into the oil
Lift about a third of the drained greens into the skillet, raise the heat to medium and press them against the pan with a wooden spoon until they break into a rough green paste. Add a ladle of the reserved water and let it bubble for a minute, stirring, so the paste loosens and takes on the oil. This is the sauce, and everything left whole from here sits in it.
Tossing and finishing the pan
Add the orecchiette and the remaining greens with another ladle of cooking water. Toss hard over high heat for about 60 seconds so pasta starch, oil and crushed greens pull into a glossy coating that clings to the cupped shapes. Taste for salt and pepper, then take the pan off the heat and serve at once, scattering the crumbs over the bowls rather than stirring them in.
Plating
Serve in warm shallow bowls, never on flat plates. The coating is thin and cools fast, and there is no meat or cheese fat to hold the heat, so a cold bowl visibly dulls the oil within half a minute. Warm the bowls with hot water while the pan is finishing.
Portion with tongs and a turning wrist so the pasta lands loosely rather than packed. Give each bowl some whole florets and not only the crushed green sauce, since the contrast between the two is the point of the work, and bring the darker intact tops to the surface where they can be seen.
Scatter the crumbs across the surface at the last moment. They lose their crunch within two minutes of meeting wet pasta, so they go on at the pass. Finish with a few drops of raw oil and a grinding of pepper. Put Pecorino on the table if guests want it, but not in the pan: the cheese flattens the bitterness the recipe is built around.
Professional Technique
The defining technique is the simultaneous cooking, which does something a separate blanch cannot. The greens release their soluble compounds into water the pasta is absorbing at that very moment, so seasoning enters the semola while it is still swelling, and the pasta sheds starch into the water the greens sit in. By the time the colander is used, both have already exchanged flavour. The tradeoff is unforgiving timing.
The second is the deliberate division of one ingredient into two states. A third of the greens is destroyed on purpose, pressed against a hot pan until the cell walls rupture and release pectin and pulp into the oil. That pulp gives the dish body, since there is no butter, cream or cheese to supply it. The other two thirds stay whole and give back what the paste lost: bite, colour and distinct bursts of bitterness.
The third is the cold start garlic infusion. Garlic dropped into hot oil browns outside before the inside gives anything up, and browned garlic is bitter in a dish with quite enough bitterness of its own. Starting the cloves in warm oil for several minutes extracts the sweet sulphur compounds evenly, and whole crushed cloves rather than slices can be removed the moment the oil tastes right.
Texture and Moisture Control
There is no emulsifying fat here beyond olive oil, so the coating depends on two things: the starch the orecchiette shed and the pulp of the crushed greens. That is why the water is never changed between components and why 2 cups (475 ml) must be reserved. Made with fresh water, the dish tastes correct and looks wrong, with oil in a ring around the pasta.
Moisture behaves differently here because the greens keep releasing water for as long as they are hot. Drain them thoroughly but do not press them, since squeezing forces out the liquid that will loosen the sauce a minute later. If the pan looks slack after the final toss it is almost always the greens, and the answer is another 20 seconds over high heat.
The orecchiette have the narrowest window. Thick centre and thin rim cook at different rates, which is the pleasure of the shape, but a minute too long and the rim goes slack while the centre is only just right. Pull them while the centre still has a chalky resistance, because the skillet adds heat and water in equal measure. Fresh ones should be tasted from 5 minutes.
Professional Mise en Place
This is a fast dish with a slow preparation, so order matters more than total time. Crumbs and garlic oil can both be made well ahead, and once the pot goes on there are only 13 minutes left.
Equipment and tools
Tall pot of at least 8 quarts (7.6 l), shared by pasta and greens
Wide skillet with sloping sides, large enough to toss everything at once
Box grater for the mollica and a small pan for toasting it
Flat wooden spoon for crushing greens against the pan
Colander, warm shallow bowls and a cup for the reserved water
Prepared ahead
Mollica toasted, cooled and stored in a sealed jar, up to 5 days ahead
Garlic oil infused and left in the skillet, up to 2 hours ahead at room temperature
Cime di rapa trimmed and washed, up to 1 day ahead, wrapped in a damp cloth
Pasta water salted and covered, ready to return to a boil
Peperoncino crumbled into a small dish, Pecorino grated only if it is wanted
Service setup
Timings written down before the pot goes on
Reserved cooking water in a heatproof cup beside the skillet
Bowls warmed and dried, crumbs within reach of the pass
Olive oil bottle and pepper mill at the plating station
Nothing finished until the diners are seated
Chef Tips
Use more olive oil than feels reasonable. Half a cup for four portions sounds excessive until you remember there is no butter, cream, cheese or rendered fat anywhere else. Cut it back and the greens taste harsh and the coating never forms. Choose a fruity southern oil with a peppery finish.
Taste the greens raw before deciding on the peperoncino. Bitterness swings with the season and the age of the plant, and a mild January bunch wants less chilli than an aggressive one in March. The heat lifts the bitterness rather than competing with it, and a second pinch at the end is easier than rescuing a pan gone hot.
Do not skip the mollica because it looks like a garnish. It is structural, the only crisp element in a bowl where everything else is soft, and the historical stand in for cheese. Make a double batch: it keeps for days in a sealed jar.
With fresh hand made orecchiette, reverse the order in the pot and watch the clock. Fresh pasta sheds starch faster and cooks in half the time, so the greens go in first and the window is shorter. It is worth the trouble: the dragged rough surface holds this thin sauce as no machine cut shape does.
Common Mistakes
Cooking the greens and the pasta in separate pots. The exchange between them in one pot is what makes the dish taste whole. Separate cooking gives pasta with greens on it, correctly seasoned and disconnected, and tossing at the end does not repair it.
Undersalting the water. There is no cheese, cured meat or stock anywhere in this recipe, so the water is the only place real seasoning enters. Use 2 1/2 tablespoons (45 g) for 6 quarts (5.7 l) and taste it before anything goes in.
Browning the garlic. Cloves dropped into hot oil colour outside before they have given anything to the oil, and the acrid result lands on top of the bitterness of the greens. Start them in cold oil over low heat and take them out at pale gold.
Crushing all the greens or none of them. Crush everything and you get uniform green sludge. Crush nothing and the oil never thickens and slides to the bottom of the bowl. A third crushed, two thirds whole, is the proportion that works.
Stirring the crumbs into the pan. They absorb the coating and turn to wet paste within seconds. The mollica goes over the top of the finished bowls at the very last moment and nowhere else.
Wine Pairing
Locorotondo DOC: The Valle d'Itria white made mainly from Verdeca and Bianco d'Alessano, and the bottle that belongs on this table. Pale, dry and low in alcohol, with a green almond note that runs into the bitterness of the turnip tops instead of resisting it. Its light body would be lost against meat but suits a dish whose only fat is olive oil.
Martina Franca DOC: A close neighbour of Locorotondo and a shade more structured, with more Verdeca and a firmer, stonier finish. That extra grip handles the peperoncino better, and the saline close refreshes the palate between forkfuls. Serve it properly cold, around 46°F (8°C).
Fiano di Avellino DOCG: From Campania rather than Puglia, and the choice when this is a first course in a longer meal. Fiano has real weight and a hazelnut and beeswax depth that stands up to the oil, while its acidity keeps the finish clean. A bottle with two or three years on it beats a very young one.
Offida Pecorino DOCG: The Marche white named after the grape, not the cheese, and an unexpectedly good match. Aromatic without being floral, with a herbal, almost sage like edge and a bitter twist on the finish that mirrors the cime di rapa. Its acidity is high enough to cut the oil this recipe calls for.
Falanghina del Sannio DOC: The everyday bottle of the Campanian hills and the most forgiving wine here. Brisk citrus and green apple acidity slices through the oil, with just enough body to meet the crushed greens without adding weight. It costs very little, which suits a dish built on costing very little.
Storage & Reheating
Eat it the day it is made. The coating is olive oil, starch and vegetable pulp rather than a stable sauce, so it stiffens in the refrigerator while the greens soften and darken overnight. It is never unsafe the next day, only considerably less good.
Cool leftovers quickly, cover them and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Reheat in a wide skillet over medium heat with 3 tablespoons of water and a teaspoon of oil, tossing constantly for about 2 minutes until the coating loosens and clings again. Add fresh crumbs at the end, since the first batch will have gone soft. Avoid the microwave.
The components store far better than the assembled dish. Toasted mollica keeps 5 days in a sealed jar and can be refreshed in a dry pan. Infused garlic oil keeps 3 days refrigerated, brought back to room temperature before use. Blanched cime di rapa freeze for 3 months if squeezed dry and frozen flat, good for the crushed part of the sauce but not for whole florets.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 first course portions:
Calories: 610 kcal
Total Fat: 30 g
Saturated Fat: 4.5 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 24 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 640 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 74 g
Fiber: 8 g
Total Sugars: 4 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 17 g
Lactose: 0 g without the optional Pecorino
Principal micronutrients: vitamin K, vitamin C, folate, vitamin A, calcium, iron, potassium, manganese
These figures are estimates and assume the optional Pecorino is left out, which is the Barese way. Most of the salt in the cooking water is poured away rather than eaten, so the real sodium depends on how much of that water is carried into the pan.
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