We love eggless pasta from visiting Sardinia and southern Italy, where you can find it everywhere. They have a slightly different texture: they are a bit more chewy, which suits me perfectly. So we remembered a bit with this recipe.
For 2 servings we need:
400 g semolina
200 g hot water
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
Sauce :
1 clove of garlic
1 dcl whipping cream
1 dcl of water (in which pasta was cooked)
2 tbsp grated pecorino
salt and pepper
4 pieces of artichokes in brine
6 slices of dried beef ham
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp chopped chives
Mix the dough together to make ia thick dough and let it knead for at least 10 minutes. Wrap it in plastic foil and let it rest for 20 minutes. Then divide the dough into smaller pieces and roll out long strings (about as thick as a wooden spoon handle). Cut them into pieces (such as when making gnocchi) and roll them out with a sharp side using a cutlery knife.
We start at the corner of the pasta and do a long pull, it’s quite a matter of trying it out and applying the right pressure. Then we “open it” and let it dry on the rack so that they do not stick to each other. Orecchiette means small ears so ear is this is the shape we are looking for. We can use them now, but they are better dried. It’s great fun for long winter evenings! Written like this is not entirely easy to understand, but try to look on youtube, where there are a lot of instructions. Another variant is, for example, malloreddus or some purchased pasta.
Cook the pasta al dente, fresh 2-3 minutes, dried about 8-10 minutes. In a pan, fry the crushed clove of garlic with a little olive oil and add the sliced artichokes. Cook them until golden brown and set them aside. Drain the fat from pan and add water from the pasta ading cream as well. Add cheese, butter, salt and pepper. After about 2 minutes, a beautiful emulsion is formed, into which we then put the cooked “ears” for the last minute of cooking. Season with chives, garnish with slices of dried ham and add artichokes. Enjoy your meal!
