INGREDIENTS
For the pasta:
- 200 g of white flour
- 100 g of durum wheat flour
- salt
For the sauce:
- 600 g of horse meat
- 100 g of pancetta
- 140 g of pecorino cheese
- a few stalks of parsley
- 4 garlic cloves
- 4 spoons of extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion
- 2,5 dl of red wine
- 1 spoon of meat sauce
- 300 g of Perini tomatoes
- salt and pepper
PREPARATION
Prepare the pasta: mix the two flours together and add a pinch of salt, knead adding warm water little by little. Add as much water as required to obtain a smooth dough. Take a piece of dough and make two or three long ropes about 1 cm thick. Cover the remaining part of the dough with a wet tablecloth so that it doesn’t get dry. Cut the ropes into 1 cm-big pieces (the size of a chickpea) and, at the same time, scrape them with the rounded tip of a knife on the pastry board, then turn the pasta inside out on your thumb thus making the orecchiette. Spread them on a tablecloth and let them rest.
Mince the pancetta and 100 g of pecorino cheese. Put some slices of meat on the cutting board, lightly pound them with a meat tenderizer and season with a pinch of salt and a bit of pepper, then put in the centre of each slice some pieces of cheese and pancetta and minced parsley and garlic.
Roll up the meat slices making roulades that you will fasten by using toothpicks to prevent the filling from getting out while cooking. Make other roulades in the same way. Put some oil in a pan with the thinly sliced onion. Fry the onion gently over a low heat, until it is soft, then add the roulades and brown them on all sides.
Drizzle with red wine that you will make evaporate. Now you can add the meat sauce and tomatoes – which you have previously peeled and minced after removing the seeds. Add salt and pepper, cover with a lid and cook for two hours, adding a bit of water every now and then.
Boil a large quantity of water to cook the orecchiette, add salt and toss the orecchiette in. Cook them al dente (tender but firm). Drain the orecchiette and spread over the sauce you just prepared. Grate 40 g of pecorino cheese and sprinkle it over the dish when you serve it.
DIFFICULTY (low, medium, high)
Medium
DID YOU KNOW
This tomato sauce recipe is the only overcooked sauce of the Apulian cuisine. It has nothing to do with the Neapolitan one. Its preparation is a ritual that has been passed on for over two centuries, celebrated by housewives since the early morning.
WINE TO MATCH
Primaio – puglia Igp Primitivo 2016 (Not local grape variety)
VERSOSUD – Susumaniello Rosso Puglia IGP 2013