WATCH: How to Make Handmade Orecchiette

Home Cooking is a monthly series where we share creative and tasty recipes for you to try at home!

An old family recipe from Puglia, a southern region that forms the heel of Italy’s boot, orecchiette is a variety of handmade pasta that translates to (and resembles) ‘little ears.’ But don’t worry, you seasoned Cantonese diner you – only semolina flour, water, salt and a bit of olive oil go into making them. 

Watch our home cooking video below to see exactly how Chef de Cuisine Vincenzo Gatti shapes the dough to form this traditional pasta. It’s a treat when you’re home alone and in the mood to whip up something special! 

Ingredients: (serves one)

Dough:

• 400g semolina flour

• 150ml water

• 1cl extra virgin olive oil

• 10g salt

Sauce:

• 2cl extra virgin olive oil

• 1 clove garlic, chopped

• 10g parsley, chopped

• 5g chili, dry

• 200g porcini mushrooms

• 200g clams, fresh

• 2cl white wine

• 30g cherry tomato halves

• 5g basil, chopped

• 5cl clam stock

Adornment:

• basil leaves

• extra virgin olive oil (to taste)

Method: 

1. Place semola flour in a bowl, make a well in the center and add salt and olive oil.

2. Add the room temperature water little by little and begin kneading until all ingredients are absorbed.

3. Transfer the dough to a working table. Flour each hand and begin kneading until obtaining smooth, silky and elastic dough (it will take about 5 minutes). Cover with cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

4. Using a knife, cut one piece of pasta and roll it to form a cylinder 1-centimeter in diameter. Cut into 1-centimeter pieces and form orecchiette by pressing and dragging your knife across each piece of dough and then shaping it with your thumb (refer to the video for this step). 

5. When you finish shaping the orecchiette, put them aside and let them dry overnight.

6. In a hot pan, add olive oil, garlic, chili and parsley and let ‘sweat’ before adding porcini mushrooms. Saute until nicely roasted.                               

7. Season in salt, then add clams, white wine and cover with a lid until clams open.   

8. Once the wine has evaporated, add tomatoes, basil and clam stock. Let the mixture simmer briefly to blend all the flavors.

9. Cook the orecchiette pasta in salted boiling water until almost ready, then add to the simmering sauce (made above) and stir vigorously for the last two minutes, adding a drizzle of olive oil to allow the starch from the pasta to thicken the sauce and make it rich and creamy.  

10. In a warm, deep plate, arrange your orecchiette and garnish with basil and olive oil. Enjoy!

This recipe is courtesy of Chef de Cuisine Vincenzo Gatti of Park Hyatt Guangzhou.

To read more home cooking, click here.

[Photos by Claire Zheng]