Name: Orecchiette with Calabrian Pesto
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 4 tbsp vegetable oil; green salad leaves to serve; 1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped; 1 small onion, diced; 500 g fine semolina; 2 plum tomatoes, deseeded and chopped; plain flour for dusting; 4 tbsp olive oil; 80 g ricotta; salt and black pepper to season; 1 small red chilli, deseeded and chopped; 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced; 125 g vegetarian Parmesan-style cheese, grated, plus extra to serve

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Vegetarian Kitchen

By Prue Leith and Peta Leith

Published 2019

About

I was introduced to this pasta by an Italian friend who used to bring her grandmother’s orecchiette back to London with her. I love it with this Calabrian pesto – the contrast of the creamy ricotta with the kick from the chilli works so well, especially with the springy ‘little ears’ of pasta. If you’re short of time, or making this mid-week, you can substitute dried pasta and it will still be delicious. If you cannot get orecchiette, rigatoni would be a good substitute. I would urge you to