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Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa

Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa reads umami 6.6, salinity 6.1 and funk & ferment 5.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Italian · Puglia main, about 1 hr 42 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.6 · Salinity 6.1 · Funk & Ferment 5.0 · Richness 4.3 · Marine & Briny 4.3 · Allium 4.0 · Heat 3.9 · Herbaceous 2.6 · Bitterness 2.4 · Earthy 1.6 · Warm Spice 1.5 · Nutty 1.0 · Sweetness 0.7

What's in it (10)

Time & effort: about 1 hr 42 min (1 hr 10 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 121.6 kcal, 7.1 g protein, 1.4 g fat, 20.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

  1. Make the orecchiette. Work the semolina and warm water into a firm dough and knead 10 minutes until smooth and elastic; it is much stiffer than an egg dough. Rest it, covered, for 30 minutes. Puglia's pasta is durum wheat and water, with no egg at all, and that is the southern half of Italy's grain divide in one sentence.
  2. Roll pieces of dough into ropes 1.5 cm thick and cut them into 1 cm pieces. Drag each piece across the board with the rounded tip of a table knife so it curls into a rough shell, then flip it inside out over your thumb. The surface should stay rough, since that is what holds sauce. Let them dry on a semolina-dusted cloth for 30 minutes.
  3. Toast the breadcrumbs in 2 tbsp of the olive oil over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes until crisp and gold, and set them aside. In Puglia this poor man's cheese, mollica, is what goes on top, not grated cheese.
  4. Warm the remaining oil in a wide pan with the garlic and peperoncino over medium-low heat for 2 minutes, until the garlic is just turning blond. Add the anchovies and press them until they melt, about 2 minutes.
  5. Bring a big pot of water to the boil with the coarse salt. Put the cime di rapa in first and cook 4 minutes, then add the orecchiette to the same water and cook 6 to 8 minutes more, until the pasta is tender but chewy at the thick centre of each shell. Cooking them together is the traditional method and it means the pasta water tastes of greens.
  6. Drain, keeping a cup of the water, and tip everything into the anchovy pan. Toss hard over medium heat for 2 minutes, adding water as needed, until the greens break down slightly and coat the pasta. Grind over the pepper and finish with the toasted breadcrumbs.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.