How To Make Orecchiette Pasta

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How To Make Orecchiette Pasta - with butter knife

Orecchiette, meaning ‘little ears, is made using the same southern Italian pasta dough as cavatelli and foglie d’ulivo. It’s easiest to shape orecchiette if the dough is a little drier than for these other pasta shapes – so if you’re making more than one shape do the orecchiette last. Smaller pieces of dough, no more than 1.5cm (½″), are easiest to work with when shaping orecchiette. It’s the trickiest shape to make if you have long nails as it’s normally shaped over the top of your finger; I find shaping it over the flat of my thumbnail gives the best result. Orecchiette is especially popular in Basilicata, where it’s served with a sauce of cime di rapa, anchovies and chilli (see video below) – I also love it with a creamy mushroom sauce. Learn more about how to make fresh pasta here – including tips on technique, equipment and ingredients – and see my page on how to cook pasta for perfect results every time.

To make enough orecchiette to serve 4 as a starter, you’ll need:

  • Coarse semolina, for dusting (called semola in Italian and often just ‘semolina’ in English)
  • 1 quantity Southern Italian Pasta Dough (about 300g/10½oz)
  • Large tray
  • Sharp knife or pastry scraper
  • Butter knife
  • Tea towel

Here’s how to make orecchiette:

  1. Dust a large tray with semolina and put it on one side of your work bench.
  2. Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
  3. Roll one piece of dough into a log about 30cm long (12″) and 1–1.5cm thick (about ½″).
  4. Cut it into pieces about 1-1.5cm thick (about ½″).
  5. Press the flat of a butter knife into the cut side of a piece of dough and roll it towards you to create a hollow oval.
  6. Turn the oval inside out over your thumb tip (or the flat of your thumb nail), stretching it gently into a convex disc.
  7. Place orecchiette onto the semolina-dusted tray. Repeat with remaining small pieces of dough.
  8. Roll another section of dough into a log and continue shaping orecchiette until all the dough is used.
  9. Orecchiette can sit, covered with a dry tea towel on the semolina-dusted tray, in a cool place for a few hours before cooking.

Here’s how to cook orecchiette:

  1. Bring a large saucepan of well-salted water to the boil, using 10g salt/litre water (⅓oz salt/2 pints water).
  2. Shake excess semolina off the pasta, add pasta to the water and stir well.
  3. Return to the boil and cook for 4–5 minutes, until tender. Cooking time will depend on how long the pasta has sat before cooking, and on how tender you prefer it.
  4. Scoop orecchiette directly from the water into your favourite sauce, toss and serve.

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Orecchiette with Cime di Rapa)

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