Orecchiette is one of my favourite ways to use (and preserve) eggs. Not that we have excess eggs at the moment – the chooks are very unhappy about the weather gods lately. We’re in the north coast of NSW, and the dust bathing conditions here have been especially disappointing. But in spring, when the chooks are pumping out a dozen eggs a day and the quails a dozen more, it is easy to understand how some form of egg noodles became a traditional way of preserving the excess in so many cultures.
Of course you can dry pasta, and dried is the real disaster-proof way of preserving eggs so they last for years, but if you are not too worried about power outages, fresh pasta freezes well and cooks from frozen in minutes. I freeze orecchiette on a semolina dusted biscuit tray in a single layer, or layers separated with baking paper, which stops them sticking together. Noodle shapes can be twirled into little nests and frozen the same way. Then, they can be tipped into bags or jars or any freezer safe container, and they’ll keep for months. One of my near-teenage grandson’s favourite after-school snacks is a bowl of pasta, out of the freezer, into boiling water, gone in less than ten minutes.
Orecchiette is a particularly nice pasta shape because it doesn’t need a pasta machine. It’s easy but (unless you are making just a couple of serves), not especially fast to make, but there’s a nice meditative process in rolling the little ears that I find way more satisfying than trying to watch my breath. There’s a bit of wisdom in having a few of these kinds of repetitive, meditative tasks in life’s routines.
This batch is for a dinner party. Homemade orecchiette, frozen ahead of time and just cooked straight from frozen while the guests are eating starters is a lovely low stress, low cost way to make something special for a tableful of people. Sauté some chopped vegetables in season – practically any vegetables work – maybe some pesto, black pepper, parmesan, good olive oil and you have dinner.
The Recipe:
Makes six to eight adult sized serves.
The Pasta
It is easiest in a food processor, but mixing by hand works fine, just takes a bit more kneading.
But if you have one, in a food processor, blend for just a minute till it comes together into a dough:
- 1 cup fine semolina
- 1 cup plain flour (I used spelt flour for this, but you can use any plain flour. A high gluten flour like bread flour or 00 flour works best).
- 4 eggs
- a dessertspoon of olive oil
- a good pinch of salt
If you need to, add a dessertspoon of warm water to bring it together.
Flour the workbench and knead very briefly, kneading in enough more flour to make a smooth, non-sticky dough.
Divide the dough into four and roll each into a long skinny snake about 1 cm thick then cut the snake into 1 cm bits. Then (this is the meditative bit) just squoosh each little orecchiette on the floured benchtop with a finger, dragging towards you to make the little ear shaped curled cups.
This is the point where, if you are storing it, you lay all the little ears in a single layer on a biscuit tray line with a sprinkle of semolina, freeze for a few hours, then tip into a freezer bag or container.
Sauce:
In a heavy frypan, saute a chopped onion, lots of garlic and whatever seasonal vegetables you have and like. This time of the year, I’m going broccolini, leeks, snow peas, green peas, pumpkin, spinach, but in summer it could be capsicum, chili, zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, eggplant. You can add capers or olives or anchovies if you like, or leave them out.
Put a big pot of water with a pinch of salt on to boil while the vegetables are cooking.
Cooking the Orecchiette and Assembling:
Add the orecchiette (fresh or frozen) to the boiling water and cook for just a couple of minutes until they float to the top and are tender. Put another pan on with some olive oil to get hot. Drain and add the orecchiette to the frypan Sauté for just a couple of minutes till they just get a bit of colour.
Toss through the vegetable mix. You could add a spoonful of pesto at this point if you like.
For serving family, you can add grated parmesan to serve. For a dinner party, provide some little bowls of shaved parmesan and some little bowls of chopped flat leaf parsley for on top.
