Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa

Walk through the narrow streets of Bari Vecchia in the morning and you will see them: grandmothers seated on wooden chairs outside their doorways, working semolina dough with practiced hands, pressing each small piece against a wooden board with their thumbs to form the characteristic ear shape. They sell what they make, still dusted with flour, arranged on wicker trays. This is how it has been done for centuries.

Cime di rapa, which Americans call broccoli rabe, is bitter. This is not a flaw to correct but a virtue to embrace. The bitterness meets the salt of the anchovy, the heat of the chili, the richness of good olive oil. Each element exists in tension with the others. Nothing dominates. Everything balances.

The anchovy dissolves completely into the oil. If you think you dislike anchovies, you have probably never had them used correctly. They are not a topping here. They are a seasoning, invisible in the finished dish but essential to its depth. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in, but what you put in must earn its place.