In short. A spring and summer dish from the Murgia, handed down by peasants and shepherds: orecchiette with wild rocket, small tomatoes, garlic and black olives. The rocket is boiled first, and its water is used for the pasta.
Rocket is usually eaten raw in salad. Here it is cooked, which changes it completely — the pepperiness softens and turns into something rounder.
Ingredients
- 400 g of orecchiette
- 300 g of rocket
- 10 small red tomatoes
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 10 black olives
- extra virgin olive oil, chilli pepper, salt
Method
1. The rocket. Clean and wash it thoroughly, using only the leaves and the most tender shoots. Boil in plenty of salted water for five minutes, then drain well — and keep the water to cook the orecchiette in.
2. The base. In a large pan put the oil, the small tomatoes cut in half, the chilli and the minced garlic, and let them soften.
3. Together. Cook the orecchiette in the rocket water. Drain, and toss with the rocket, the tomato base and the black olives.
Which rocket. The one this dish was built on is wild rocket — Diplotaxis tenuifolia — which grows on its own near the coast and is much stronger than the cultivated leaf sold in bags. If you are using the mild supermarket kind, use more of it.
More pasta on the first courses page.
