Orecchiette with broccoli, sausage and anchovy

A meatier take on Puglia's much loved little ears with cime di rapa

I’m going to preface this post by saying I am in desperate need of a produce hook up for some cime di rapa (otherwise known as broccoli rabe/rapini) in Brisbane. I don’t know if I’ve just not been looking in the right places, but I’ve been hard pressed to find it so far. If you’re reading this and thinking, well I can’t find cime di rapa either - fear not, as I suspected this might be the case for a few of you. This recipe utilises the readily available and humble broccoli in its place. And let me tell you, it still delivers.

Broccoli, the queen she is

Whenever I make orecchiette I’m reminded time and time again that it is my favourite hand-formed pasta to make. I even have a specific knife that I like to use (a blunt-ish petty knife), its presence now a part of my muscle memory whenever I roll, drag and invert little pieces of dough across the board. There is no other shape that makes me want to play around with dough hydration quite like orecchiette - it’s amazing what a difference a few mls of water can make. If you want to nerd out a little and read more about dough hydration and how I typically work with a lower hydration dough, you can read about it in this post.

So that’s where this starts (in fact, that’s where 90% of my recipes begin, with the shape!) - orecchiette made with a 47% hydration dough, a personal sweet spot. The structure and texture achieved at this slightly lower hydration is fabulous, while the dough itself is easier to wrangle than say a more ambitious 40% dough. Now that I had my orecchiette, I needed a sauce.

Orecchiette con le cime di rapa is a Puglian classic. It contains cime di rapa - a bitter green that somewhat resembles tenderstem broccoli, anchovies, garlic and chilli - all tossed together in a sort of light emulsion thanks to the olive oil and pasta water combining forces. Cime di rapa translates quite literally to turnip tops, and as I’m writing this I’m wondering if I could have just bought a bunch of turnips along with their tops intact and made this (mental note being made: test for another time!).

Before I met my husband, I’d wager that upwards of 80% of what I’d cook day to day would be vegetarian. Not for any particular reason, but I naturally lean veggie when it comes to food. Since meeting him, the meals we share at least have flipped the other way - so knowing that he is the recipient of the majority of what I cook, I often think about adding meat. Lucky for him, broccoli and sausage is a classic pairing in itself! And while this meatier take on the classic Puglian pasta sees sausage usually taking place of the anchovies, I like to keep both proteins in for this sauce. The anchovies add this deep, salty umami hum with every mouthful (without being fishy at all), which just turns this dish up a notch.

You can use a few different greens here - if you can find cime di rapa, then absolutely use that! Otherwise broccoli or the tenderstem variety will suffice. Aim for approx 300g either way.

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The Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the orecchiette (47% hydration)