Recipe: Orecchiette con le cime di rapa

Food writer Elizabeth Minchilli, author of such books as "The Italian Table: Creating Festive Meals for Family and Friends" (Rizzoli) and creator of the Eat Italy app, offers "Sunday Morning" viewers her recipe for a favorite pasta dish from Italy's Puglia region: Orecchiette con le cime di rapa.

She writes: 

"I remember having it for the first time in Bari and thinking, 'Hey, this seems pretty easy. You even cook the vegetables and pasta in the same pot.'

"But back in my newly-wedded home, I tried often – and failed – to recreate this typical dish. Under cooked orecchiette. Over cooked orecchiette. Broccoli that fell apart. Broccoli that tasted nothing like mamma's.

"And then there was the whole thing about getting my hands on some orecchiette in the first place. This little ear-shaped pasta is very much a pugliese thing, and although you'll find 'orecchiette' shaped pasta in most supermarkets, they aren't anywhere near the real thing.

"Real orecchiette are thick, hard and – when cooked correctly – slightly chewy to the bite.

"But today I'm happy to say that I've finally perfected my orecchiette con cime di rapa. It's only taken me 20 years, and involves driving down to Bari to shop for ingredients.

"I kid you not."

Even those who can't drive down to southern Italy for ingredients should try Minchilli's recipe, below.

Don't miss Seth Doane's report on orecchiette on "CBS Sunday Morning" November 21!

Orecchiette con le cime di rapa

Ingredients:

• 1 pound/ 500 gr. orecchiete pasta
• 2 pounds/1 kilo prepped cima di rapa (broccoli rabe)
• 5 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• Red pepper flakes to taste (about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp)
• 4-6 anchovy filets

Instructions:

1. Prepare all your ingredients before you get started.
2. Wash and trim your greens. This took me the longest time to figure out. you want every bit that is tender, but that's sort of subjective. Definitely the flowering head, or cima. Then the tender center leaves, as well as any bigger ones that seem tender.
3. Anchovies: you can use anchovies packed in oil, ready to go, but I like the ones that are preserved in salt. This means soaking them for about 10 minutes, in room temperature water. Then carefully opening them up, taking out the central bones, and rinsing them off. Cut them into small pieces.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the orecchiette, and set timer for five minutes. After five minutes, add broccoli and bring back to steady simmer.
5. In the meantime, place oil in a pan that will be large enough to hold all the pasta and broccoli. Heat oil gently, and add garlic and red pepper. When garlic begins to become fragrant, add anchovies, mixing and mashing them up with a wooden spoon. Turn off heat so garlic doesn't brown or burn.
6. After pasta has cooked for about 12 minutes total, start checking it. Orecchiette is a tricky pasta to get right. You want it to be cooked through, but still chewy. They will be more 'al dente' than other kinds.
7. When it is cooked, drain pasta and broccoli in a colander, reserving a cup of the cooking water.
8. Turn heat back on under olive oil, and add pasta to the pan. Stir and toss over low heat, so that pasta absorbs the oil. Add a bit of cooking water if you think it's dry. But the broccoli should give the dish enough moisture.
9. Serve, making sure you divide the broccoli evenly into each dish, since it tends to clump up.

For more on this and other recipes from Minchelli, visit her website, elizabethminchilli.com. You can also read more about making and eating Orecchiette in Minchelli's book, "Eating My Way Through Italy" (St. Martin's Griffin), available via Amazon and Indiebound. 

You can also watch Minchilli's video on making and eating Orecchiette in Bari:

Check out the "Sunday Morning" 2021 Food Issue Recipe Index for more menu suggestions, from all of the chefs, cookbook authors, flood writers and restaurateurs featured on our program, as well as the writers and editors of New York Times Cooking.