Cesca & Ruby in Puglia ( prior to eating orichiette!)

In Puglia, they eat raw octopus.  Cesca says:“They net it, bring the animal to shore, turn the head inside out, pound it against the rocks. Then they eat it. Crudo. With a few drops of lemon juice.”

We don’t do raw octopus, but I often prepare the traditional pasta of Puglia, Orechiette with Rape.  Orechiette, by the way means ‘little ears.’ Here’s my recipe:

Cook a pound of semolina orechiette according to package directions.

Meanwhile, wash and then steam a bunch of rape* for about 3 minutes.  The rape should remain rather bright green. Let the vegetables cool a bit before roughly chopping the bunch into small pieces.  Small pieces give better pasta coverage.

Please note that you can use any strong-flavored greens, such as mustard greens, collards, broccolini, kale, and chard in addition to or in place of the rape.

Pour 1/2 cup of good green olive oil (preferably from Puglia) into a large skillet.  Heat the oil add 3-5 cloves of chopped garlic.  When the garlic begins to be transparent, add the chopped greens, being careful to get out of the way of hot oil when it spits as you add the moist greens.  Stir and continue to cook for about 4 minutes.

When the orechiette are cooked drain. Be sure to reserve 1/2 cup of the water in case you need it; the reason you would need it would be because you didn’t use enough olive oil to lubricate the greens and pasta.  Add pasta to the vegetable and oil. Stir from the bottom so as not to break any of the pasta. If needed add the 1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking water.

Season with salt and pepper, as you like.

Variations:  Add a can of anchovies to the garlic and oil mixture.  Add  1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.