Name: Orecchiette al Forno
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: grated pecorino; 2 pounds orecchiette; ½ pound fresh ricotta; Salt; Butter; Olive oil; 2 pounds rapini (broccoli rabe), washed; 1 pound Fennel Sausage; 4 garlic cloves, chopped; 2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary; Red pepper flakes

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes

By David Tanis

Published 2008

About

If you choose a sturdy dried pasta type like orecchiette (little ears), you can cook pasta ahead without compromising quality. For a vegetarian version of this baked pasta, omit the sausage and add crushed fennel seeds to the greens. Other greens can be easily substituted for the rapini, if you like.

Ingredients

2 pounds orecchiette
Olive oil
2 pounds rapini (broccoli rabe),

Method

Have two pots of well-salted water boiling briskly. Cook 1 pound of pasta in each pot until extremely al dente, about 9 minutes. Lift the pasta from the water and spread on baking sheets to cool; drizzle lightly with olive oil to keep it from sticking together.

Using the boiling water, blanch the greens for 1 minute or so. Drain in a colander. When they are cool, roughly chop the greens