Orecchiette

Widely available in their dried form, these ‘little ears’ of pasta are quite unappetising unless fresh. Orecchiette are made from semolina dough and are fairly thick, so that by the time their interior is cooked from dry, the outside will be overdone. Freshly made, however, their cooking time is reduced to about one-third, the inside already being moist, resulting in a delightful, springy pasta. Their form is disc-like, with a thick lobe running around the outside and a thinner, rough-textured middle that is pushed out into a dome shape – this part catches the sauce, the outside giving some bite. A similar pasta, strascinate (drag-alongs) is the same, only flat. Both strascinate and orecchiette are delicious with scarce, slightly oily sauces that just coat the pasta, with chunky bits of about the same size that can be eaten well together.

Some sources suggest they originated as a French medieval buckwheat pasta, croxets, brought from Anjou to Puglia in the 13th century. Whatever their beginnings, they are one of the staple pastas in Puglia, along with cavatelli, both being made daily in homes – normally with plain semola, but sometimes with the burnt grano arso for a black, smoky pasta.