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Pinterest image with a picture of turnip greens orecchiette pasta and a caption reading "Easy Italian recipe. Turnip greens pasta". Photo by Lemons and Spices

Turnip Greens Orecchiette Pasta

A delicious, easy, and quick pasta with greens from the Italian tradition.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • 1 pot
  • 1 Skillet
  • 1 skimmer or strainer

Ingredients
  

  • 1 kg turnip greens
  • 360 gr pasta of your choice (short type of pasta, no spaghetti)
  • 4 anchovies preserved in oil
  • 1 fresh red chili pepper (or 1 tsp of dried crushed red pepper flakes)
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tbsp olive oil extra-virgin
  • salt to taste
  • grated ricotta salata (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Remove the hardest parts of the stalks of the turnip greens still leaving some of it and wash them thoroughly. Now cut everything into smaller pieces.
  • In the meantime, put a pot full of water to boil. When it boils, add a generous pinch of coarse salt and the turnip greens for a few minutes until tender.
  • Meanwhile, heat up the olive oil and the clove of garlic in a skillet. Being careful not to burn the garlic, add the chili pepper and the anchovies. Little by little, the anchovies will melt. You can help them by crushing them with a spoon.
  • When the turnip greens are soft, drain them with a large skimmer and drop them in the pan with the pepper and the anchovies. Sauté everything until well coated.
    Image: Turnip greens cooking in the pan. Photo by Lemons and Spices
  • Once you removed all the turnip greens from the water, you can use the same water to cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Some cook the pasta and the turnip greens together by adding the greens in the last three minutes of the pasta cooking time. This way, the result will be a little less creamy but still delicious. If you want to make it creamier, you can add a spoonful of the cooking water and give a quick blend with an immersion blender. This is not traditional practice but I don't think anyone will feel offended if you do it!
  • Drain the pasta al dente and add it directly to the pan with the greens together with a ladleful of the water used to cook the pasta and now rich in starch.
  • Stir everything over medium to high heat.
  • Serve hot. According to the original recipe, it's served without cheese on top. If you want to add some, dried ricotta is a good match.