Cavatelli with turnip tops
( Cavatelli alle cime di rapa )

Fresh pasta dressed in simple and easy way.
The recipe is very simple; it has more difficulties if you want to prepare this kind of pasta at home.
Clean and wash turnip tops very well. Boil them in abundant salted water and then drain but remember to preserve their cooking water. In fact you have to cook pasta in this water until al dente stage!
While pasta is cooking, pour olive oil, garlic cloves and chili pepper into a non-stick frying pan. Let them fry lightly for few minutes over a medium heat and then add dried breadcrumbs. Let all the ingredients fry quickly, remove chili pepper and garlic and switch off the gas.
Drain pasta and pour it into the pan together with turnip tops; cook over a fierce heat to mix all the flavours, stirring.
Serve at once.

Note

• - If you have no time to prepare pasta by yourself, you can buy it (800 g - 1 3/4 lb).
• - Many people don't like garlic; in this case we suggest to substitute it with 2 tablespoons anchovies in oil and 2 tablespoons capers in vinegars. Make the recipe in the same way. When we prepare this recipe with cavatelli at home, we don't use dried breadcrumbs.
• - Generally we prefer to cut boiled turnip tops into thin pieces so their flavours can combine better with pasta in the pan.
• - It's a low fat recipe.

What's the right wine for " Cavatelli with turnip tops "?

Our suggestion is: Greco di Tufo (white wine from Italy).

A little history

This kind of fresh pasta is well known in the south of Italy: Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria. Generally these dumplings, made with white flour and cold water, are also dressed with rocket and green olives or with matured ricotta cheese.