Orecchiette Recipe
My Italian family's recipe for orecchiette
Ingredients
- 400 g fine durum wheat flour (semolina flour)
- 200 ml lukewarm water
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Pour out the flour onto a flat surface such as a marble or granite countertop or a wooden board. Using your hands, make a well in the center.
- Add the lukewarm water a bit at a time with the salt, working in the flour from the sides of the well with a fork. Keep adding the water in this manner until all the flour has been incorporated and the dough comes together into a shaggy mess. If it doesn’t come together, add a bit more water, just a teaspoon at a time, until all the flour has been incorporated.
- Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap and let rest for ideally 30 minutes but a minimum of 15.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Take one piece and cover the rest.
- Roll the dough into a long snake, about 1cm thick. If it gets too long, just cut it in half and work with a shorter piece.
- Cut small pieces of the dough about 1 cm in length, giving you small squares of dough.
- With a rounded tip butter knife, press down on a corner of one piece of dough, moving the knife towards you in a diagonal fashion on a lightly floured surface. Pick it up and invert it to flip the just formed orecchiette inside out (I like to flip it inside out on my thumb but you will have to play a bit and see what works best for you).
- Place the finished orecchiette on clean, dry tea towels to dry out. You can either let them sit out and partially dry for a couple of hours or sit out overnight.
- To cook the orecchiette, bring a large pot of salted water up to a boil and add the orecchiette pasta. If the orecchiette have been completely dried, they may take up to 10 minutes. For pasta that has only been partially dried, check it after only five minutes.
- Drain and dress immediately with your favorite pasta sauce.
Notes
Shaping the little ears of orecchiette can be a bit tricky at the beginning. You will see that as you practice, your “ears” will get much more defined and the process will go much quicker.
Don’t be afraid to add more flour if the dough is sticking to your surface.
I find a marble board works best for shaping the orecchiette pasta but use any flat cooking surface you have such as a wooden cutting board.
You might need to add a bit more water to the dough should it be dry and not come together completely with the 200 ml. Temperature and flour brands can affect this.
You can make orecchiette pasta dough in a stand mixer such as a KitchenAid.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!