Homemade Orecchiette Pasta from Puglia

5 from 26 votes

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 Time1 30

Cook Time5

Resting time15

Total Time1 50

Course: Homemade Pasta, Main Course

Cuisine: Italian, Mediterranean, Puglia, Southern Italian

Keyword: authentic Italian pasta recipe, homemade orecchiette, homemade pasta, orecchiette, orecchiette recipes

Servings:

Calories: 270kcal

Author: Jacqui

Ingredients

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

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)
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)
When you are ready to make the orecchiette, cut off about ⅓-1/4 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.
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.
Your homemade orecchiette can be stored at room temperature overnight. So you can make the pasta the day before cooking and serving.

Notes

When you cook homemade orecchiette add them to boiling salted water. Once the pasta rises to the surface let it cook for 2 minutes more. Then scope the orecchiette out of the water with a slotted spoon and add to your sauce. It’s best to try the pasta before removing it to make sure it’s cooked.

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