{"id":3742,"date":"2026-03-26T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/?p=3742"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:12:16","slug":"cavatelli-with-cime-di-rapa-sausage-and-peperoni-cruschi-cavatelli-pasta-with-turnip-tops-sausage-and-sweet-red-peppers-from-basilicata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/cavatelli-with-cime-di-rapa-sausage-and-peperoni-cruschi-cavatelli-pasta-with-turnip-tops-sausage-and-sweet-red-peppers-from-basilicata\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavatelli with Cime di Rapa, Sausage and Peperoni Cruschi \/ Cavatelli Pasta with Turnip Tops, Sausage and Sweet Red Peppers from Basilicata"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The inspiration for this dash came after our recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/moody-march-and-a-trip-down-south\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trip to Matera<\/a>, from where I tend to bring a few local ingredients from such as sweet crunchy <em>peperoni cruschi<\/em>, olive oil and sausages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019d suggest however, not to worry too much if you are unable to find the <em>peperoni cruschi<\/em>, but do try them when visiting Matera or the region of Basilicata!! It will not be the same, of course, but a sweet or lightly smoked paprika could be a good substitute. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If <em>cime di rapa<\/em> are also hard to come by or the season for these greens has come to an end,<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019d use a head of <em>romanesco<\/em> cauliflower or broccoli instead. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Buy an Italian or Italian style raw pork sausage, these are readily available in many food halls nowadays. If you want something spicier some Spanish chorizo would work in this dish too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As you can see, you can be quite creative and intuitive with this pasta dish, inspired by certain ingredients and their concoction that I had came across a few weeks ago in Matera.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Serves 4:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">320 g of cavatelli or orecchiette pasta<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1 kg of cime di rapa (turnip tops)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">220-250 g of an Italian sausage, I used fresh Luganega (also called Luganica) pork sausage (meat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>removed from its casing)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1 clove of garlic<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">olive oil <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">salt <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">pepper <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">3-4 tablespoons of grated aged goats cheese or pecorino cheese <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><em>peperoni cruschi<\/em>, 2-3 per portion<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Take the tender leaves only and the florets of the turnip tops from their stalks (if the stalks are tender enough use them as well) and blanch them in boiling salted water. For the best results immerse in the boiling water the stems with the florets first, and after about 1- 2 minutes add the leaves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The greens are meant to be blanched only, depending on their tenderness and age, the whole process should take about 2-4 minutes only.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Drain (leave some cooking water for later) and squeeze to remove the excess water, then roughly chop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Warm 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saut\u00e9 pan, add the garlic and the sausage meat separated into smaller pieces. Fry on a medium-low heat stirring and pressing the meat to the pan for a few minutes. Once the meat is almost cooked through add the chopped <em>cime di rapa<\/em>, and cook everything for a further 5 minutes or so. Remove the garlic and discard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the meantime bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Put in the pasta and cook until al dente.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Remove the pasta from the pot using a slotted spoon and add it to the pan with the sausage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Add some reserved cooking water (after blanching the <em>cime di rapa<\/em>) and cook everything together tossing around for 2-3 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add more water if needed. The greens and the sausage should begin to cling to the pasta by then.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Take the pan off the heat and toss in almost the entire amount of the grated cheese.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Serve the pasta on individual plates, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of each portion, drizzle with some olive oil and decorate with crushed in your hands <em>peperoni cruschi<\/em> (or powdered paprika).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Eat immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inspiration for this dash came after our recent trip to Matera, from where I tend to bring a few local ingredients from such as sweet crunchy peperoni cruschi, olive oil and sausages. I\u2019d suggest however, not to worry too much if you are unable to find the peperoni cruschi, but do try them when &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/cavatelli-with-cime-di-rapa-sausage-and-peperoni-cruschi-cavatelli-pasta-with-turnip-tops-sausage-and-sweet-red-peppers-from-basilicata\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Cavatelli with Cime di Rapa, Sausage and Peperoni Cruschi \/ Cavatelli Pasta with Turnip Tops, Sausage and Sweet Red Peppers from Basilicata&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[69,654,655,656,657,658,659,660],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3742"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3779,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions\/3779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}