Pasta with broccoli

Fusilli con cime di rapa
You always know, you have paid too much for your market vegetables, when the vendor insists on giving you a lot extra ‘come un regalo’.

A couple of weeks ago, I arrived at the market after 10 am, which is too late for the best buys. To make matters worse, I did not have time to walk around from one stall to the other comparing the price and quality of various greens. Instead I found an uncrowded greengrocer, who seemed to have all the fruits and vegetables I intended to buy, and placed a total order.

Seeing his smile get bigger and bigger, as we worked our way through eggplants, onions, oranges, peppers, potatoes and squash, I knew, he was up to something, but I was not fast enough to say no, when he offered me some end of season ‘cime di rapa’ ‘per niente’. Two seconds later, he had emptied a table of yellowing (and to be quite honest a bit tired looking) broccoletti that were handed over in a crammed carrier bag.

There must have been 3-4 kilo, but luckily most of the flowers, stems and leaves were past their sell by date, and ended up in the bin. The good bits were prepared in the classic puglian way and served as a surprisingly good primo with an interesting hot, salty and slightly bitter taste.

Ingredients
500 g broccoli, broccoletti or cime di rapa
3 cloves of garlic
1 big dried or pickled pepperoncino
Lots of olive oil

Preparation
Clean and was the broccoli.

Boil the greens in a saucepan for 10 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry sliced garlic and pepperoncino lightly, before adding broccoli. Stir in a bit of boiling water and mash up some of the flowers if necessary to make the veg a little saucy.

Add salt, pepper and more chilli to taste af serve with boiled pasta – preferably orecchiette – but other shapes like fusilli, conchiglie or farfalle will not spoil the dish.