Orecchiette 2: beef or broccoli (turnip tops) & Don Quijote?

Sometimes an ingredient attracts your attention because of its shape. Orechiette always fascinated me for this reason. It is like a vessel you can load with different sorts of flavours. Sometimes those that look as impossible preparations come out to be the easiest ones, and while the water boils you are able to achieve amazing results. Sometimes, simply the fact that a dish is your girlfriend's preferred one, encourages you to indulge on its unrhymed poetry. Moreover, orecchiette remind me of Don Quijote, because of the resemblance between their shape and his typical element:

Murillo Benich Hugo, The dream of Don Quijote, 1980.
Benich Hugo is able to capture all the elements of the dream
in one painting: this ability is similar to that of the dish of pasta,
where all the cooking processes have to homogenize
according to a specific manner.

This time I wish to tickle your interest on two opposite dressings: the Aberdeen beef ragout I prepared two posts ago and the sautées broccoli. Broccoli substitute here turnip tops, which would actually be the most indicate vegetable for the orecchiette.

What to do with turnip greens? Good question: "I know vegetables"

offers several answers, although sometimes

his selection of recipes is using too conventional ideas

(this sounds dreadfully hipster, but it didn't meant to):

http://www.iknowvegetables.com/turnip-greens.html

Here is the meaty suggestion:

Measure around 80 gr of orechiette (Tesco finest* 1,65£),

let them boil in salted water

for 11 minutes.

Aren't they just beautiful like this?

Shall we call it entertaining pasta?

Drain the orecchiette and dress them with the 

Aberdeen angus beef ragout, lightly warmed up:

the mild ragout and the hot pasta 

will reach the right temperature not

to burn your tongue at the first bite.

Sprinkle with some Pecorino

or another hard cheese.

Here is, instead the vegetarian answer: this condiment is so tasty and rich that everyone will appreciate it, because it recreates a sort of Southern atmosphere, and brings the broccoli to a higher level, without begin excessive. Moreover, this recipe allows you to avoid using the broccoli as a side dish, and cooking the pasta in his water possibly helps to save even more nutrients.

Select your broccoli (there are Tesco Organic, 1,40£ each)

Boil them in salted water,

KEEP THE WATER TO COOK THE PASTA

Drain the broccoli with a skimmer and 

fry them gently in 2 tbs of extra-virgin olive oil

with some chili, a clove of garlic.

Add 30 ml of tomato sauce, only to give colour,

correct the sapidity. 

Drain the orecchiette, but keeping them wet

(or just add a ladle of cooking water before draining):

stir until the liquid and the sauce will be 

well absorbed.

Add also some Pecorino during the stirring process.

Take a quick picture and eat them,

in their decadent light.

Some people would add some bread crumbs, and I am positively favorable to this extra topping, especially if you brown for 30 seconds the breadcrumbs in a pan.

Orecchiette (1) : pasta with love inside

During Summer days (I am not reporting Scotland this time) lovers swarm together and enjoy reciprocal company in several activities: I remember that when my parents once went for three days to Saragozza (where Charlemagne imposed the strength of his empire, at least in the Chanson de Roland), whereas my sister was in Southern France, I had the house on my own and I was able to invite over the girl that would have become my girlfriend. Sometimes coincidences are so fruitful!
At that time, I did not fully realized how much we both loved cooking and staying in the kitchen together. So, the first culinary date spotted me as the only attendant and I made it out well with the different dishes.
Afterwords, we shared our common passion that concurred to make our bonds tighter, because it is emotional, intense and particularly charming. We keep cooking often together and once she taught me how to prepare home made orecchiette, a typical pasta format of her region, Puglia again. Orecchiette literally means little ears.

Mix up 300 ml of water, a pinch of salt (10ish gr)

and 600 gr of durum wheat semolina: knead a loaf

and then cut it into pieces. Manipulate them as snakes.

Cut the snakes into little pillows and produce the gesture

you are looking in this picture that I found in

http://www.semplicementepeperosa.com/

the correct verb should be to flip them over, and 

expert chefs use also a knife to obtain this result.

Four arguments from the weakest to the strongest

that shall convince you to produce yourself in

hand made orecchiette:

it is beautiful to do the orecchiette

 with the person you love,

because it take less time (1), you laugh a lot 

for all the wrong orecchiette that come out (2),

it is time spent making food love (3),

and finally because cooking-eating-sharing

puts you on an equal level of enjoyment (4).

From 4 to 6 people should be able to 

enjoy this amount of orecchiette.

What if you are very lazy and you prefer to buy them directly in a shop or a supermarket? First of all shame on you, but secondly I can provide some useful commercial suggestions:

Known in the rest of the world:

in my opinion their quality is acceptable

but not excellent.

For an industrial product these are very good orecchiette.

Garofalo

Saclà is another major Italian brand,

famous especially for antipasti,

yet this pack price is a bit to high

for my personal taste (2,10£)

Caroli and Fioccata: two pasta factory

that produce orecchiette employing methods that

appear to be more traditional.

Fiorillo

Tesco finest* 1,65£

During the next post, I shall try to prepare two different toppings: both of them will bring out the shape of the orechiette. And this effort will remind me how sweet will again be cooking with my favourite co-chef.