ORECCHIETTE:
The queen of homemade pasta is orecchietta, whose preparation requires experience, ability and practice.
Prepare the pasta: on the pastry board mix two thirds of durum wheat semolina with one third of white flour. Knead with warm water until you get a firm dough. Roll a piece of dough to make a rope as big as one finger. Using a knife with a rounded tip, cut a piece of dough the size of a thumb’s nail and scrape it on the board with the tip of the knife.
Finally, turn it inside out with your thumb, in this way a small cupola will come out: one orecchietta is ready. Repeat the same process with other pieces of dough. There are medium and big size orecchiette.
Let rest the orecchiette for some hours before cooking them.
There are many ways to season them.
Orecchitte with wild broccoli and bread crumbs
INGREDIENTS:
– 350 g of cime di rapa (wild broccoli)
– 0,8 dl of oil
– 80 g of anchovies in oil
– 40 g of bread crumbs
For the pasta:
– 300 g of whole-grain flour
– 100 g of durum wheat flour
– Salt
PREPARATION:
Prepare the pasta: mix the two flours and add a pinch of salt, knead while adding warm water little by little, as much water as required to get a smooth dough. Take some pieces of pasta to make two or three ropes about 1 cm thick. Cover the remaining dough with a wet tablecloth so it doesn’t get dry.
Cut the ropes of dough into 1 cm-big pieces (the size of a chickpea) and scrape each of them with the tip of your thumb on the pastry board (or cutting board), then turn each piece of pasta inside out on your thumb thus obtaining orecchiette. Spread them out on a tablecloth and let them rest.
Clean the wild broccoli removing the hard part of the stems, wash and chop into big pieces, then boil them in abundant salty water for 20-30 minutes. Drain the wild broccoli with a skimmer, keeping the water. Put half of the oil in a pan, heat it and add the previously crumbed anchovies and sizzle until they tend to dissolve. Add the wild broccoli and sauté all together for 5-6 minutes over a medium heat. In a pan brown the bread crumbs in 0.4 dl of oil.
Boil the orecchiette in the wild broccoli cooking water. Cook them al dente and drain. Sauté them in the pan with the other ingredients, stir and let it develop a richer flavour over a high heat for 1 minute. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, mix again, then serve.
WINE TO MATCH
Prosit rosè – Valle D’Itria Igp Rosè Sparkling 2016
FARAONE – Verdeca Valle d’Itria IGP 2016