Doughs:
Sauces:
What they are
The pride of the Puglian table. In the port city of Bari, this pasta has graced women’s hands for almost a thousand years; walk the narrow stone streets today and you’ll meet mothers and daughters stretching dough into pasta at roadrunner speed. Big and little ears—orecchione and orecchiette, respectively—are scattered across mesh drying racks by every doorway, their hollow coves dancing with shadow and light under the beating sun. The women of Bari are so good at their craft that they’ve developed their own method entirely, called “arco basso,” in which the pasta is fashioned in one continuous movement instead of two, like you’ll see here. And if I had to pick a favorite pasta, both to make and to eat, this would be it.
How they’re traditionally served
The smaller versions with meat sauces, the larger with vegetables, and especially with cima di rapa (broccoli rabe), which grows abundantly in Italy’s south.
MAKE THE DOUGH
Make your dough of choice and let it rest, tightly covered, at room temperature for 20 minutes.
SET UP YOUR WORKSPACE
Dust a sheet pan with semolina or line it with a dry dishcloth. Gather your tools.
ROLL THE DOUGH INTO A ROPE
Cut off a slice of dough, about the width of one or two fingers. Keep the rest covered.
Roll the dough into a ½-inch (1.25-cm) thick rope. Start in the center and use your fingers or the palms of your hands to roll the dough, first back and forth, until the surface is smooth, and then outward in opposite directions, eventually making your way toward the ends. If the dough slides and it’s difficult to get a grip, wet your hands a little and try again. The rope does not need to be perfectly even.
CUT THE ROPE INTO PIECES
Cut the rope into roughly ½-inch (1.25-cm) pieces.
MAKE THE ORECCHIETTE
Place a nugget of dough on your work surface. Then use the serrated edge of a table or butter knife to drag the dough toward or away from you, with firm pressure, tilting the blade downward into the dough at a 30- to 45-degree angle, until the dough curls over on itself like an ocean wave crashing on shore. If dragging the dough toward you, you can use your non-dominant index finger to apply more pressure on top of the tip of the knife as you drag for more control.
Don’t be shy with the pressure; the more tension you feel between the dough and the knife, the rougher the surface will be, which will help catch sauce.
Peel the curled edges apart with your fingers and invert the dough over your thumb to expose the rough interior, stretching it a little into a small dome.
Arrange the finished orecchiette, rough side up, in a single layer on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the remaining pieces, and then the remaining dough. If you have the time, let the pasta dry for an hour (or up to 5 hours) before cooking.
COOK THE PASTA
Cook the orecchiette until tender but with some bite, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on their thickness and drying time.
