Servings: 4 people
Calories: 339kcal
Instructions
- STEP 1: Gather all necessary ingredients for the recipe. Form a volcano with the durum wheat flour. Place the water in the middle of the volcano and add the salt. Helping yourself with a fork start incorporating the flour with the water until you have a paste that you can start working with you hands. The dough will be a bit sticky at this stage.
- STEP 2: Spread some semola flour on the work surface and knead the dough until it becomes smooth and it is elastic. It will take around 10 minutes. You will know it is ready when you impress a thumb in the dough and dough bounce back immediately. (See notes for making dough with machine)
- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes covered with a tea towel. Why should I rest the dough? The resting period allows the flour to continue to hydrate, and the gluten to relax. If you skip this step it will be an epic disaster: your dough will be too elastic AND WILL NOT KEEP THE SHAPE!
- STEP 3: Now, tale the dough and with the knife divide in 4 equal part. Take a quarter and start rolling it out into a long thin rope about 1/2 inch in diameter.
- STEP 4: Cut the rope into small pieces about half inch long.
- STEP 5: Now shape the cavatelli: there are three methods to shape cavatelli:Method 1: you can use your thumb and press the small pieces from left to right – or right to left if you are left-handed. This is very easy, but also will not give your that ridges surface that allows to retain more sauce.Method 2 – my favorite: you can use a gnocchi board. Press down on the noodle and drag it away from you. This method will give you that typical ridges surface.Method 3:if you don’t have a gnocchi board, you can use a fork, it will work well and will give you more deeper ridges on the cavatelli surface.
- STEP 6: Repeat this process with each piece of dough until you have enough cavatelli for your desired serving size. After you’ve twirled a bunch, dust with some flour and use a dough scraper to lift the Cavatelli onto a cookie sheet, laying them out in one single file,
- STEP 7: To cook your homemade orecchiette al dente you should poceed like any other kind of pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Add the orecchiette to the boiling water and stir gently so that they do not stick together. You will know they are ready when they are rising to the surface, this will take approximately 7-9 minutes.
- Once cooked, drain the pasta thoroughly and serve immediately with your favorite sauce.
Notes
Alternatively you can add the flour in a food processor and then add the water while you are mixing it with the flour. It will be faster, but I have to say that doing it by hand is the best way to go as you can really feel the dough coming together.
Nutrition
Calories: 339kcal | Carbohydrates: 71.13g | Protein: 13.68g | Fat: 2.47g | Sodium: 585.96mg | Potassium: 431.12mg | Calcium: 35.91mg | Iron: 3.52mg
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