Orecchiette with turnip tops, a traditional Apulian dish

The recipe for orecchiette with turnip tops is a classic from Puglia. Few ingredients for a truly amazing typical dish: let's prepare it together!

You can't leave Puglia without tasting the orecchiette with turnip tops. The housewives prepare this characteristic type of pasta strictly by hand at an incredible speed and you will soon realize it if you try to make them at home.

To make this dish, very few ingredients will be enough: flour, water, turnip greens, garlic and chilli pepper and it is incredible how combined together they give life to such a good dish! What do you say, shall we go to the kitchen? Here's the recipe for orecchiette with turnip tops!

How to prepare pasta with turnip tops

1. First, mix the flour with the water and a pinch of salt. The result should be a smooth and homogeneous dough that you will let rest under an upside down bowl for 15-30 minutes.
2. After the resting time, divide the dough into small parts and work it with your hands, shape it into small loaves of 1 cm in diameter. Using a pastry cutter, cut out 1cm pieces , then use a serrated knife to slide each piece towards you on the pastry board and turn it onto your thumb . This way you will have kept some orecchiette.
3. Now clean the turnip tops. Remove the stem with the help of a small knife and wash the leaves under running water. Bring plenty of salted water to the boil then dip the turnip tops. When it has started to boil again, add the orecchiette.
4. In the meantime, heat a pan with three tablespoons of oil and season the chopped garlic with the chilli pepper.
5. Then add the anchovy fillets to the pan and let them melt , then turn off the heat.
6. Separately, in a second pan, heat plenty of oil and add the stale breadcrumbs crumbled with your hands, let it brown for a few minutes, being careful not to burn it, then set aside.
7. When the orecchiette are ready, even the turnip tops know it. All you have to do is drain them with a slotted spoon directly into the pan with some oil and sauté them for a few minutes on high heat to add flavour, adding a ladle of cooking water as needed.
8. Finally, plate and complete the dishes with a handful of crunchy bread.

And here is a video recipe very similar to our preparation:

Also discover all our recipes with turnip greens and all the types of cabbage out there !

storage

We recommend consuming the Apulian first course at the moment . We do not recommend freezing in the freezer.