An Italian Classic, from the South of Italy, and more precisely from Puglia, the heel of the peninsula.
And as most of the traditional Italian dishes is simple, satisfying and tasty 🙂
In the list of ingredients, in parenthesis, you can find not so traditional substitutes, as I’m afraid most of the ingredients are difficult to find outside Italian borders.
Ingredients
250 g fresh orecchiette (or 200 g dry orecchiette, or 200 g durum wheat short pasta, such as penne or rigatoni)
1 kg turnip tops (or 400 g broccoli)
2 garlic cloves
Extra virgin olive oil
4 to 6 anchovy fillets in oil
Pecorino, grated
Chilli pepper, as much as you like
For 2 people
- In a big pan bring to the boil a lot of water (at least 4-5 litres).
- Clean the turnip tops: keep only the sprouts and the most tender leaves and stalks. Wash them under fresh water.
- When the water is boiling, salt it generously (take a look at my post on how to cook pasta). Let it boil again.
- in a big saucepan (it has to contain your cooked pasta too), add 2 tablespoons of oil and the peeled and crashed garlic cloves. Let them fry a little, then add the anchovy fillets.
- Add the turnip tops and let it cook until the pasta is cooked al dente.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it al dente, even harder, as it will go for a few minutes in the pan with the turnip tops.
- Once the pasta is cooked properly, drain it and add it suddenly to the pan with the turnip tops.
- With a wooden spoon, keep turning all the contents of the pan for a few minutes.
- Transfer to a serving dish, top with some more olive oil, grated pecorino and chilli pepper.
- Serve right away!
