Homemade Anellini Pasta Rings alla Pecorara

This homemade anellini pasta rings recipe comes from Abruzzo in Central Italy. It’s a dish you can find in many trattorias and homes there, particularly in and around the town of Elice in the province of Pescara.  This pasta recipe is rich in veggies and perfect for vegetarians. Of course, you can use other types of pasta with the alla Pecorara sauce.

A unique pasta dish from Abruzzo.

In the world of Italian pasta, there are some traditional types of homemade pasta which are mostly only made and served with one type of sauce. A few that come to mind are silk handkerchief pasta with pesto, pansotti with walnut sauce, fregnacce Abruzzese and stuffed mezze maniche in broth (see links below). 

Homemade anellini pasta alla pecorara is another of these recipes. Of course. this doesn’t mean you can’t serve the pasta with other sauces. It just means it’s not traditional to do so.

So, anellini alla pecorara is a dish of a particular type of pasta and sauce eaten together. In Abruzzo, you can find fresh anellini to buy in many food stores. Interestingly, the pasta is sold as anellini alla pecorara or pecorara di Elice. Although, many locals still make this pasta themselves. Outside of the region, the only way to enjoy this dish in its authentic form is to use homemade pasta, which is what we did.

What is anellini pasta?

In Italian, the word anello means ring. Hence, anellini are pasta rings. However, in most recipes for anelli, anelletti or anellini the pasta is dried rings of various sizes. This is the pasta that people outside of Italy associate with Campbell’s spaghetti Os or Heinz spaghetti hoops!  It’s considered a traditional pasta variety in Sicily, where they use it in a baked pasta dish called anelletti al forno or timballo di anelletti. Italians also use pasta rings in soups and salads.

With dried pasta rings, anellini or anelletti are generally smaller than anelli. But, homemade anellini pasta rings from Abruzzo are bigger. I guess it’s difficult to make very tiny ones by hand!

How to make homemade anellini pasta rings.

To make the pasta for this recipe you will need both Italian ‘00’ soft wheat flour and durum wheat semolina flour. Most recipes call for equal amounts of both, plus eggs and sometimes water and olive oil too. I used 150g of each flour, 2 eggs, a little water and a teaspoon of olive oil.  You can use 3 eggs instead of adding water and olive oil and all-purpose flour instead of the Italian ‘00’ flour.

I made the dough in the same way as other pasta doughs by mixing the flours then adding the eggs and olive oil and then water as required. Durum wheat semolina has a higher gluten content than soft wheat flour, so pasta dough made with it requires a bit more kneading to get it soft and pliable.

Making the rings isn’t too difficult. After kneading, allow the dough to rest, then cut off small pieces, roll them out into thin ‘snakes’, cut the snakes into 6-7cm lengths (2.5”), wrap them around your index or middle finger and seal the ends together.

Freeze and cook from frozen.

Some people make the anellini a bit bigger than we did but I like them smaller. Put the ready pasta rings onto a floured surface as you make them. You can leave them out in a dry place and cook the next day. It’s also very easy to freeze them and cook from frozen. I often do this with homemade short ot filled pasta. Don’t keep the fresh pasta rings in the fridge as the humidity there will make them sticky and soft.

What are the ingredients in alla Pecorara sauce?

Although I have read that this recipe originally had some meat in it, the majority of versions today are mostly vegetarian ones. The pasta is dressed with a tomato sauce mixed with sheep’s ricotta, sautéed vegetables and pecorino. Of course, pecorino isn’t actually vegetarian as it contains animal rennet. Strict vegetarians can leave it out or use a vegetarian hard cheese.

The word ‘pecora’ means sheep in Italian and alla pecorara means shepherd’s style. So, I imagine this dish got its name from the generous quantity of sheep’s ricotta and pecorino in it. Like many traditional Italian pasta recipes, anellini alla pecorara is a dish that originated in what the Italians call ‘la cucina povera’, meaning the peasant kitchen. It’s made with produce the peasants and farmers made or grew themselves. Thus, the vegetables they grew, the cheese they produced and the pasta they made themselves!

How to make the pecorara sauce.

The condiment for homemade anellini alla pecorara has 3 main components, a tomato sauce, sautéed vegetables and fresh ricotta. Traditionally the latter is sheep’s ricotta, but you can use cow’s milk ricotta instead.

The tomato sauce.

The tomato sauce in this recipe has a base or soffrito of finely diced and sautéed onion, carrots and celery. Soffritto is the Italian mirepoix and is used in many sauce, soup and stewed meat recipes. Before it’s cooked Italians refer to it as ‘battuto’.

Sometimes, recipes call for garlic in the soffrito as well, although in general onions and garlic aren’t used together. Southern Italian tomato sauce is normally made without soffrito. Instead, they use tomatoes, garlic and basil.

Making this alla pecorara tomato sauce is quite easy. Just sauté the soffrito, then add tomato passata or chopped peeled tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 15-20 minutes and then take it off the heat and mix in the ricotta. I kept aside some ricotta to add to the plates before serving.

The sautéed veggies.

Nearly all recipes for homemade anellini alla pecorara call for sautéed egpplant, zucchini and bell peppers. The latter can be any colour but I prefer red, yellow or orange. This time, I used one red pepper and one yellow. These are all summer veggies, although nowadays we can find them year-round. Some recipes also include mushrooms but not the one I followed. Of course, you can add them too.

The vegetables are cut into cubes and sautéed with olive oil and garlic. Once the vegetables are cooked, you can add them to the tomato sauce or add them to the pasta after mixing it with the tomato and ricotta sauce, which is what I did.

Finish and serve.

Once your homemade anellini pasta rings, the tomato and ricotta sauce and the sautéed vegetables are all ready, cook the pasta al dente in boiling salted water. It’s best to test taste before draining as cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of your pasta rings.

Drain the pasta and add it to the tomato sauce and mix well. Then plate and add some sautéed vegetables, fresh basil leaves, extra ricotta and grated pecorino if using. As I mentione above Italian pecorino isn’t vegetarian so you can leave it out or use vegetarian parmesan.

Let me know what you think.

Of course, you can serve this sauce with other types of pasta. I think it would go really well with orecchiette or cavatelli, especially if they are homemade. However, if you make homemade anellini, I’m sure you’ll love the authentic version of this pasta recipe from Abruzzo as much as we do.

If you make this anellini pasta rings alla pecorara recipe, I’d love to hear how it turns out. Please write a comment here on the blog, email me or post a comment on the Pasta Project Facebook page.

Your feedback is really appreciated!

Buon Appetito!

Pin for later.

Other unique homemade pasta dishes to try.

1. Silk handkerchief pasta with pesto from Liguria
2. Fregnacce Abruzzese
3. Stuffed mezze maniche in broth from Piemonte
4. Pansotti pasta with walnut sauce
5. Lorighittas with chicken ragu
6. Homemade Fried Rye Flour Ravioli

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If you are interested in learning how to make homemade pasta and different types of gnocchi, check out my shop page for some great video online courses from my friends in Rome! Nothing beats learning to make pasta from Italians! Plus while you’re there why not order a copy of one of my pasta recipe cookbooks or checkout some recommended pasta making tools? All great prezzies for pasta lovers!