Follow these steps at home to learn to make fresh homemade orecchiette pasta noodles! This recipe combines semolina flour, warm water and salt (no egg). If you love making your own pasta dough, preparing beautiful homemade orecchiette is a little time-consuming, but 100% worth the effort. Recipe yields 4 servings of pasta, and the orecchiette are ready to cook within 50 minutes.
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I first came across orecchiette while watching Pasta Grannies. Anyone else loves these videos?
Anyway, it showed a woman from Bari Old Town who makes orecchiette on the street. Watching her work was fascinating and made me want to make it! If you are interested, let's make this "little ears" pasta.
If you love making fresh pasta, try your hand at other varieties such as a homemade kamut pasta, this homemade gnocchi recipe or some fresh whole wheat pasta.
What is Orecchiette Pasta?
Orecchiette, which means "little ears" in Italian is a shape of pasta that truly does resemble an ear ever so slightly. They originated in Southern Italy and are made with only semolina flour, water, and salt. This particular homemade pasta doesn't include egg.
They are shaped like a small dome and have a rough surface. Both of these characteristics are perfect for helping the sauce cling to the pasta.
How to Pronounce Orecchiette?
It looks like a true mouthful right? But it's easier than you think! The correct pronunciation of this pasta shape is [oh-rayk-kee-EHT-teh].
Why You Need To Make Homemade Pasta
- Fresh pasta is always better than packaged pasta!
- Making a meal completely from scratch may bring great satisfaction.
- It's always fun to learn a new cultural technique.
- A handy option of you can't find orecchiette pasta in the store.
Ingredients
The only ingredients you need to make this homemade orecchiette pasta recipe is semolina flour, salt, and water.
Semolina flour is made using durum grain. Durum wheat is a sturdy grain, and perfect for kinds of pasta that are a little more rustic and meant to soak up sauces
PRO TIP: You can also use a blend of all-purpose flour and semolina as well but my preference is to make homemade orecchiette with only the semolina.
How to Make Homemade Orecchiette
We are going old school here and make orecchiette pasta on the counter. As a note, you can also mix the dough up in a food processor or even blender.
- Place the flour in a mound on your surface and mix in the salt.
- Create a well in the center of your pasta and pour a half cup of water into the well.
- Gradually begin mixing the flour into the water from the sides of the well until it is mostly incorporated.
- Now you want to start kneading the dough. If it feels a little dry, add in more water but be careful you don’t add too much.
PRO TIP: You want the dough to not be sticky, but also not too dry. It’s a happy medium that sometimes is only learned after a little trial and error.
- Knead the dough for about 5-7 minutes. Then cover it with saran wrap and allow it to sit for at least 20 minutes.
- Cut off about a 10th of your dough and roll into a snake that is about a half-inch thick.
PRO TIP: Keep the rest of the dough covered while you work with each section.
- Sprinkle your work surface with semolina and start cutting the snake into half-inch pieces.
- Here is where you will learn the rhythm of this pasta. Start with one piece at a time and use a butter or bench knife to scrape the knife over top of the pasta pulling it towards you.
- As you pull it towards you and flatten up to a thin layer that’s slightly curled.
- Take your thumb or finger and press the curl the opposite way over your finger. It will form a little cone with the edges curled over.
- Continue this method until all the pasta is formed. It’s going to take a while so be patient.
- Sprinkle the tops with a little more semolina.
- You can cook the pasta right away in salted boiling water for about 2-3 minutes or let the pasta dry on a cooling rack until it is completely dry.
Expert Tips
- Find your own rhythm for making orecchiette. I heard this several times when I was learning to make orecchiette, but I didn't know what that meant until I started making it on my own. I made two batches before I found a rhythm that worked for me.
- There are different tools that you can use to form your orecchiette pasta. Some use a butter knife or a spackling knife. I found that my bench knife was the technique that worked for me, but you can try different tools until you find one you like.
- Orecchiette only uses two ingredients. It's the perfect vegan pasta since there are no eggs in this pasta.
- This is a "slow food." What I mean is that making homemade vegan pasta is a slow process since you will be forming a lot of little ears one at a time. It will take a little bit of time to form the orecchiette so enjoy the process. Invite friends over to make it with you, don't be stressed, and don't be rushed.
- Make sure you let your dough rest for about 15-20 minutes before shaping.
More Pasta Recipes You'll Love
If you have a pasta extruder, here are 2 recipes I recently developed for my Philips pasta extruder. The first is homemade pasta without eggs, the second is a pasta extruder recipe with eggs.
3-Ingredient Homemade Orecchiette Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 cups semolina flour you can also use a blend of all-purpose and semolina, but I prefer 100% semolina
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ - ¾ cup warm water
Instructions
- We are going old school here, meaning I will teach you how to do this by hand on the counter. Just know you can also do this with a food processor or even blender.
- Form a mound of flour on your surface, mix in salt. Nor create a well in the center of your pasta.
- Pou ½ cup water into the well, gradually mixing in the flour from the sides of the well until it is forming mostly incorporated.
- Now start to knead the dough. If it feels a little dry, add in more water. Add the water sparingly though. Knead and check.
- You want the dough to not be sticky, but also not too dry. It is happy medium that sometimes is only learned after a little trial and error. You will see what my dough looked like from the video in post.
- Once you have kneaded the dough for about 5-7 minutes, cover with saran wrap and allow it to sit for at least 20 minutes.
- Now, cut off about a 10th of your dough and roll into a snake that is about ½-inch thick. Keep the rest of the dough covered while you work with this section.
- Sprinkle your surface with semolina.
- Start cutting the snake into ½-inch pieces.
- Here is where you will learn the rhythm of this pasta. Start with the one piece and a butter knife of bench knife. Scrape the knife over top of the pasta pulling it towards you.
- It should curl as you pull it towards you and flatten to a thin layer, curled.
- Take your thumb or finger and press the curl the opposite way over your finger. It will form a little cone with the edges curled over.
- Continue this method- yes, it will take awhile, until all the pasta is formed.
- Sprinkle the tops with a little more semolina.
- Cook the pasta right away in salted boiling water- it takes about 2-3 minutes to cook.
- Or let the pasta dry on a cooling rack until it is completely dry.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
- Now, sit back and enjoy. You deserve it!
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!