Pasta Recipes: Fresh Orecchiette Pasta with Classic Pesto
Pasta is the perfect dish for spring and this recipe is great for afternoon picnics!
The boys from Pizza Italiana have shared their recipe with us so that you can make the perfect pasta at home.
Fresh Orecchiette Pasta with Classic Pesto
Ingredients:
For the Pesto;
1 Small clove of garlic,
small handful of pine nuts lightly roasted in a dry frying pan or under the grill
sea salt.
2 Large handfuls of basil leaves,
250ml of olive oil
small handful of grated Parmesan.
For the Orecchiette;
One batch of fresh pasta dough / bought from your local supermarket
Method:
Take your pestle and mortar and crush the garlic and pine nuts with a small pinch of salt until you have a rough paste. You can use a food processor here, but we much prefer the rougher texture you get with a pestle and mortar. Throw in your basil and begin to break it down.
Trickle in your olive oil until the basil has also come down to a rough paste and you have quite a loose sauce.
Stir the Parmesan with a spoon and that’s it.
To make your orecchiette, cut your pasta dough into six pieces and roll each piece into a sausage about the thickness of a 5p coin. Cut each sausage into 1cm pieces.
Take each piece of pasta and roll it on your work surface, under your thumb. This will create little orecchiette, which literally translates as “little ears”.
Cook in a large pot of boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes or until they float to the surface. Serve the orecchiette with fresh pesto.
Pizza Italiana airs weekdays at 12.30pm, from Tuesday 7th May, on Food Network UK. This recipe is from Pizza Pilgrims: Recipes from the Backstreets of Italy (HarperCollins, £20).
Tagged in Recipes Food & Drink Pasta