Homemade Orecchiette

Homemade orecchiette are small, ear-shaped pasta that offer a delightful, chewy texture. Made from a simple dough of flour and water, these pasta pieces are perfect for soaking up sauces or pairing with hearty ingredients. Freshly made, they bring a touch of authentic Italian flavor to any meal, elevating your pasta dishes with their unique shape and satisfying bite.

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Diet: Low Lactose

Prep Time: 40

Cook Time: 5

Resting Time: 20

Total Time: 1 5

Servings: servings

Calories: 298kcal

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

1 cup flour heaping amount
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/3 cup water

Instructions

Get a heaping cup of flour. You may not use all of it, but that’s fine.
1 cup flour
Make a well in the middle of your pile of flour. Make sure your sides are high enough and not too thin.
Add a bit of salt and sprinkle it across your flour. Add your oil and water to the well in the flour you made. Make sure it doesn’t overflow.
1/2 teaspoon salt
Use a fork to mix it all together. Start with the oil and water and just slowly incorporate the flour walls.
4 teaspoons olive oil, 1/3 cup water
When the dough starts to really come together and isn’t very liquid anymore, it’s ready for you to knead it by hand. Scrape the dough off your fork with your hand and get to work.
To knead the dough, simply squish it together in your hands, and then push it across the sil pat. Turn it slightly, re-squish it and keep going. You’ll begin to incorporate more flour as you go to get it to a good texture.
You may not use all of it though, and that’s fine. You don’t want it too dry. It should be similar to the texture of sugar cookies after they’ve sat in the fridge if that helps.
Keep kneading until it starts to feel soft and plastic like, which should take around five minutes or so. That’s when you’re ready to start the next stage of “kneading” the pasta dough.
Roll out your dough until it looks like a thick snake. Start rolling up the snake onto itself. Then roll it into a snake again (think vertically instead of horizontally) and repeat seven or eight times.
Once it’s all nice and smooth again, wrap it in plastic, and let it rest on the counter for twenty or so minutes. Break off a hunk of your dough – maybe one quarter or so – and roll it into a thin snake this time. You want it the diameter of your pinky or so.
Cut it into small pieces, no more than 1/2 inch wide. If you make your orechiette too big, they’ll be gummy. The fast way to do this is to simply take each little piece of dough and push down with your thumb at a slight angle which will make a shape that looks sort of like a little ear – which is where the word orechiette comes from.
We made ours using a gnocchi board. Simply put the little ball of dough on the board, push down with your thumb as you roll it across the board, and it makes an awesome shape.
As you make each piece of orechiette, put it on a dry towel so that it doesn’t get sticky or icky on the bottom touching a non porous surface. This also makes a great tool to carry your pasta to your boiling salted water.
Add the orechiette to your boiling water, and let it cook. It will rise to the surface as it cooks, but check it to be sure it’s fully done.
Once it’s cooked, put it into a prewarmed bowl. Make your sauce in another pan, then put your pasta into the pan to cook it and coat it together. Then you put it into your prewarmed bowl (having dumped out the water, of course).

Equipment

Silpat

Measuring Spoons and Cups

Gnocchi Board

Notes

Adding salt is optional but it does add flavor to your pasta. You want more than a pinch but not a full teaspoon.
For more tips and tricks, be sure to read the full article above.

Nutrition

This site uses an online source to provide nutrition estimates as a courtesy. If you need exact values, please calculate yourself.