First courses
Orecchiette (“Little ears shape pasta”)
Ingredients:
-400 gr of re-milled durum wheat semolina
- 1 lt of lukewarm water
- salt
Preparation:
Pour the semolina on a pastry board (with a salt pinch), give it a basin shape, then add lukewarm water (necessary to knead) and work pasta for about 10 minutes till some little bubbles form (dough must be hard and smooth).
Cover it with a damp cloth and leave it to rise. Once ready, detach a piece of pasta from the dough and continue rolling it up on the floured pastry board until you obtain a little cylinder which should be as thick as a pen. Then cut it into small 1-cm-long pieces.
With a round knife edge drag each piece on the pastry board (curving it) so that pasta assumes the shape similar to a little shell.
Subsequently put each little shell on the thumb point and turn it backwards (the knife blade can help you). Continue in this way till pasta is finished.
Once finished, place the orecchiette side by side on a cloth or on the same pasty board.
It is advisable to let orecchiette stand for a night. They are excellent with turnip greens or tomato sauce (better fresh sauce).
Orecchiette with spicy ricotta cheese
Ingredients:
- 400 gr. of orecchiette
- 1 lt of pureed tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 3/4 basil leaves
- Spicy ricotta cheese
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt, as much as it is enough
Preparation:
Fry lightly onion with a drop of oil.
Pour the pureed tomatoes, basil and a salt pinch. Add 3/4 spoons of spicy ricotta cheese letting it melt.
Mix the whole with pasta und dress it with this sauce.
Orecchiette with turnip greens
Ingredients:
- 300 gr of orecchiette
- 1 kg of turnips
- 4 anchovies under oil
- 4/5 spoons of extra-virgin olive oil
- Breadcrumb
- Garlic
- Salt
Preparation:
Peel and wash turnips, being careful to cut off leaves and the hardest stems. Let water boil in a large container and, when it boils, steep the turnips and cover everything; at the second boil steep orecchiette cooking them as much as it is necessary.
Separately, prepare a “soffritto” with oil, 2/3 cloves of garlic (crushed and free from skin) and anchovies under oil.
Take the stale breadcrumb, grate it and leave it in the oven until it seems toasted. Strain pasta and turnips and, far from fire, put them again into the saucepan where you will add soffritto and crumb; mix and serve.
Cavatelli with rocket
Ingredients:
- 400 gr of cavatelli
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 300 gr of rocket
- 8 spoons of extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
- 3 desalted and boned anchovies
Preparation:
Boil the rocket in salt water and, halfway in the cooking process, put cavatelli. In a separate pan fry slightly the (previously minced) cloves of garlic in oil. As much as you like, arrange everything sprinkling on cavatelli a handful of grated Apulian sheep’s milk cheese called Pecorino.
Cavatelli with mussels
Ingredients:
- 200 gr of cavatelli
- 500 gr of mussels
- Rocket
- Little tomatoes
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic
- Parsley
- Chilli pepper
Preparation:
Accurately clean and wash mussels. Let them on fire open in a pan with some oil, some water, minced parsley, a clove of garlic and a salt pinch. Once cooked, pan-fry the pasta with mussels and add pepper, chilli pepper, rocket and little tomatoes (cut into little pieces). Let flavours amalgamate for some minutes and serve the dish.
Crudaiola
Ingredients:
- Fresh fleshy and pureed tomatoes
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- A shape of hard ricotta cheese or marzotica ricotta cheese
- Fresh basil
- Fresh chilli pepper
- Oregano
- Much garlich
- Preferred pasta
Preparation:
In a terrine chop tomatoes (leave them with their skin), crush (but do not slice) the garlic, mince basil with hands, crush the chilli pepper and add tomatoes to everything. Then add much olive oil and oregano (if you like).
Leave everything to marinate for some hours.
When pasta is ready, pour it into the mixture and stir well.
You can add cheese as you like.
Pasta and white broad beans
Ingredients:
- 500 gr of pasta
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
- 400 gr of shelled dry broad beans
Preparation:
Pour into a pan the broad beans completely covered with water. Leave them covered for about 12 hours. Once strained, leave them to cook on fire removing the foam which will form little by little; add other water preventing the possibility that they dry. The predicted cooking time is minimum 1 hour. Then strain the broad beans making them become a purée. Strain the pasta and add the mixture to it. You can add olive oil and pepper as you like.
Broad beans and chicories
Ingredients:
- 2 kg of new broad beans with pod
- 2 kg of chicory with greens
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 onion
- Salt
Preparation:
Clean the broad beans as you like, peeling them if possible, and accurately rinse them under running water. Also clean the turnip greens removing the hardest leaves.
In a container large enough, bring water almost to a boil and immerse the broad beans little by little, and, after some minutes, add also the greens leaving them to cook until they assume a dark green colour. It is possible to dress everything with uncooked olive oil or, if you prefer, with onion’s soffritto.
Rice, potatoes and mussels
Ingredients:
- 300 gr of rice
- 1 clove of garlic
- Onion
- Parsley
- 500 gr. of potatoes
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 kg of mussels
- Pepper
Preparation:
Accurately wash mussels with abundant water; subsequently pour them into a pan containing minced garlic and let them spontaneously open on fire. Once ready, shell them and carefully filter the previously produced sauce. Then continue to peel and slice potatoes. Put the middle of potatoes into an oiled pan adding parsley and minced onion.
Then pour rice and mussels. Dress with uncooked oil and put the pan into the already hot oven for about 45 minutes.
it is not necessary to salt the pan because of the salt contained in the mussels and in their sauce. It is also possible to add little tomatoes in pieces as you like.
