Pasta w/ Cime di Rapa

One typical pasta dish from the south of Italy is “Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa”, orechiette are the small shell pasta which name means small ears. The cime di rapa are this vegetable that translated in English means turnip greens but they are not. Its more of a relative to broccoli. it is mostly green leaves with some small occasional broccolini. It is found only in this season. Traditionally this pasta dish is made with anchovies, garlic, red chili and cime di rapa, but I used tofu instead of the anchovies.

Ingredients:
-180 gr pasta
-1 bunch cime di rapa
-2 garlic cloves
-100 gr tofu
-extra vergin olive oil
-red chili powder
-salt and pepper
-nutritional yeast (optional)

Wash and chop the cime di rapa, keeping the leaves big and bottom parts smaller. Heat up a big pot of water and bring to boil, add 1 tbls coarse salt and add the pasta and turn on timer according to the type of pasta you are cooking. 5 minutes before the pasta is ready add the chopped cime di rapa.
In the meantime heat 1 tbls olive oil in a pan and add the garlic chopped roughly, after 2 minutes add 1 tsp chili powder, the tofu cut into small cubes and 1 tsp salt. Let cook for another 2 minutes.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it together with the time di rapa, keeping a glass of cooking water aside. Add to the pan with tofu and let everything steam up together adding more water if necessary.
Serve with some extra verging olive oil and some nutriotional yeast instead of parmesan 😛
Buon Appetito!