Homemade Orecchiette Pasta from Puglia
Like many Southern Italian pasta shapes, you only need flour, water and salt to make homemade orecchiette. Making and kneading the dough isn’t so difficult. And you are sure to enjoy making this authentic Italian pasta yourself.
- Prep time
- 1 hr 30 min
- Cook time
- 5 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 300 g hard wheat semolina flour ((10.5oz) Semola di grano duro)
- 160 g water ((5.4floz) tepid)
- 2 pinch salt (plus salt for cooking pasta)
- semolina flour (for dusting)
Instructions
- 1
Mound the flour on a pastry board or work surface, make a well in the middle and add the salt. Slowly add the water whilst incorporating the flour and water together. You can use a scraper to help keep the flour and water together. (I like to start in a bowl and once I have a dough like mixture, I turn it out onto a board and start kneading)
- 2
Work the dough until no dry flour remains. Then knead until smooth and elastic. About 5-10 minutes. Roll the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Let it rest for about 15-30 minutes. (Some people don’t do this with flour and water dough but I like to)
- 3
When you are ready to make the orecchiette, cut off about 1/3-1/4 of the dough and roll it out into a sausage about 10in/25cm in length. Cut the sausage into 1-2 cm (0.4-0.8in) pieces.
- 4
Take one piece of dough and a normal dinner knife and hold the knife at a 45-degree angle to your work surface, then press and roll the piece of dough toward you. When you reach the end of the piece of dough, stop and unfurl the dough over your thumb in the opposite direction to form a concave shape. Put the ready orecchiette on a baking sheet or tea towel, lightly sprinkled with semolina flour. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- 5
Your homemade orecchiette can be stored at room temperature overnight. So you can make the pasta the day before cooking and serving.