This is a rich meaty take on the classic Puglia pasta made with pork sausage bitter greens olive oil garlic peppers and al dente orecchiette.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 America's Test Kitchen | 2023-11-05 18:00:01 |  75,165 Views |
Orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage
Serious Mealtimes / Sasha Marx
This dish is a meaty take on Puglia’s famous orecchiette con le cime di rapa. Both versions feature al dente pasta mixed with bitter broccoli rabe that’s been reduced to a sauce of olive oil garlic chiles and starchy pasta cooking water. Here fresh pork sausage and a splash of white wine join the party complementing the assertive savory punch of anchovies that’s used in the cucina povera (“poor kitchen”) classic. The sausage adds juicy fattiness and floral notes of fennel to the mix while the wine’s sweet acidity balances the rabe’s bite. It’s a richer dish in more ways than one.
For purists “cime” is simply the tender leaves and florets of broccoli rabe. They are plucked from the more fibrous stems of the plant which are then discarded or used for other purposes. For orecchiette con le cime di rapa we recommend following this practice as the texture in the dish should come from the chew of the pasta and the crunch of the toasted breadcrumb topping rather than the vegetables. But for this dish we blanch the tender stems and the leaves and florets so that they acquire the same light chew as the sausage.
