Orecchiette pasta with turnip-top greens

Orecchiette with turnip top greens are a real institution throughout more or less the whole of Puglia but particularly in the Bari area. Today we offer a quick version, but no less tasty for that, made from top quality ingredients. In a couple of simple steps you will have the opportunity to taste and offer your guests a dish of orecchiette with turnip-tops and a creamy cheese sauce. Eating is believing!

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. Drain. Combine with the contents of the jar and mix well. Add the anchovies and chilli. Complete with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and serve. This is a typically Salentine variety of turnip-tops. It is grown from October, and harvested at various points from December to March. The time of harvest depends on the plant variety, but also on the collecting technique which consists in manually cutting the more tender parts of the plants at different times: therefore there are several stages to harvesting the same plant. Once harvested, turnip-tops are washed by hand to remove the tougher parts, cooked, seasoned and jarred in extra virgin olive oil. Turnip-tops are used in many ways. If sauteed they can make a lovely flavourful sauce to be combined with orecchiette pasta, as in our classic dish from Puglia. They are also great as an appetizer or as a side dish, and they can accompany both meat and cheese. They are made by our company from fresh produce without any preservatives: natural Puglia!