Puntarelle with orecchiette
2 likes
Puntarelle are another of my beloved bitter winter greens.
After having eaten them earlier this week as a salad, I decided to make up a quick pasta dish. The bitterness is more intense … a tiny spoon of sugar did the trick to make the dish “rounder”.
To finish off, I added some roasted pine nuts as well as some grated ricotta salata because this is what I had. Feel free to use any cheese you have at hand.
Puntarelle with orecchiette
A winter pasta dish with bitter greens
Servings 3 Portions
Ingredients
- 1 medium sized catalogna
- 300 g orecchiette
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves if yours are small, you might want to add another one or two
- 2 tea spoons capers mine are kept in vinegar. If yours are kept in salt make sure to rince them thoroughly
- 1 tea spoon sugar
- salt
Instructions
- Cook the orecchiette in a large enough pan until they are al dente. When they are ready, drain them leaving them fairly moist as the pasta water will work nicely with the vegetables.
- For the puntarelle, cut the bottom of your catalogna off and discard it. Remove the leaves and from the larger ones cut off the leathery and darker tops and discard them. Now break off the inner parts. Once you are done carefully wash everything in cold water. Next cut the leaves into the size of your pasta. As the inner parts are fairly small, but thicker, cut them in half lengthwise.
- Heat the olive oil in a fairly large pan. Crush the garlic and on medium heat fry it for 3-4 minutes being careful not to burn it, but rather ensure your olive oil is nicely infused with garlic. Now add the prepared puntarelle and let them cook on a moderate heat for 5-7 minutes. Add the capers, sugar and salt. Stir thoroughly to ensure your puntarelle are evenly seasoned and cooked. Once they are soft, add at least 2-3 scoops of your pasta water, turn down the heat and let everything amalgamate.
- Before draining the orecchiette, keep some pasta water aside. Once your pasta is al dente, add the rinced orechiette to the vegetables, stir everything together and if too dry, add some of the pasta water you kept aside.
- Serve immediately with the topping of your liking.
Leave a comment