dave&mike

Kitchen

Orecchiette

Hand-shaped semola & water pasta, Puglia, Italy · 2026

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⚠ Ingredient note: this recipe calls for semola rimacinata (fine durum flour) — not the coarser semolina sold in most U.S. grocery stores. See "Semola, not semolina" under Recipe below.

Ingredient calculator

How many are you feeding?

  1. Choose your portion count below, or skip straight to weighing your semola.
  2. Weigh out the suggested amount of semola rimacinata (fine durum flour) — this dough is just flour and water, no egg.
  3. Enter what you actually weighed. However much semola ends up in your hand is the real number that matters — the water updates to match it, at the traditional 2:1 ratio.
Units:
Portions
4 portions

Semola — as weighed
g

Ingredients

Yield

This dough is traditionally just semola and water — no egg, and no salt. The instructor in class used none; well-salted cooking water does the seasoning instead. See the note on salt below if you'd like to try a pinch in the dough.

The recipe

Semola & water dough

This is about as honest as pasta dough gets: finely milled durum wheat and water, worked by hand until it comes together, then shaped one small piece at a time. No egg, no oil, no resting on a machine — orecchiette is a hand-shape, and the dough is built to be firm enough to hold that shape and toothsome enough to stand up to a simple sauce.

Semola, not semolina. Look for "semola di grano duro rimacinata" — finely milled durum wheat flour, pale gold, silky in the hand. It is not the same product sold as "semolina" in most American grocery stores, which is milled coarser (closer to a fine cornmeal) and won't hydrate or knead the same way. Italian grocers and online retailers (Molino Grassi, Antimo Caputo "Semola Rimacinata di Grano Duro") both carry the right flour.

  1. Mound and well. Pour the weighed semola onto a clean board or into a wide bowl and mound it into a pile. Press a well into the center, wide enough to hold the water, with walls thick enough not to blow out when you pour.
  2. Add the water. Pour the water into the well. Using a fork, begin drawing flour in from the inner walls, working in a circular motion so the water stays contained. Once the mixture is too shaggy for a fork, switch to your hands and bring it together into a rough, craggy mass. It will look too dry at first — that's normal for a durum dough. Keep pressing it together rather than adding more water.
  3. Knead, 8–10 minutes. Knead on a lightly floured surface. This dough is stiffer than an egg dough and will feel tight and resistant for the first several minutes — keep going. It smooths out and becomes elastic as the gluten develops. You're done when the dough is smooth, firm, and springs back slowly when pressed with a finger.
  4. Rest, 30 minutes minimum. Shape into a ball, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and rest at room temperature. This relaxes the gluten and makes shaping much easier.
  5. Shape. Cut off a working piece, keeping the rest covered. Roll it into a rope about 1cm (⅜") in diameter and cut into pieces roughly the size of a chickpea. Drag each piece firmly toward you across the board with your thumb (a plain dinner knife works too), letting it curl and thin into a small domed disc with a rough, textured surface — that texture is what catches sauce. Invert the disc over your fingertip to form the characteristic concave "little ear" shape. Set shaped pieces on a lightly floured or semola-dusted tray, without touching, as you work through the batch.
  6. Cook. Cook in generously salted, rapidly boiling water. Fresh orecchiette takes about 8–10 minutes depending on size and how much it's dried on the tray; taste early. Fully dried orecchiette (see Storage) takes closer to 12–14 minutes, like a dried store-bought shape.

A note on salt

The class version of this dough had none — the instructor relied on well-salted cooking water alone, which is common for orecchiette. Some other traditional recipes do work in a small pinch. Either is fine; if you want to try it, add it dry with the semola before pouring the water, rather than dissolving it in the water itself.

Base ratio, for reference: water = 50% of semola weight (2:1 semola to water by weight — for example 100g semola to 50ml water). This is exactly what the "pour water to a count of 2" method in class was calibrating toward: your measured 50ml water lines up with a roughly 100g single-portion handful of semola, right on the traditional ratio.

Storing your pasta

Fresh, dried, or frozen

Orecchiette is one of the most forgiving shapes to dry and store — its shape and texture hold up well fully dried, closer to a store-bought dried pasta than a delicate fresh egg noodle.

Partially dried — still pliable

  • Paper bag at room temp: 1–2 days max
  • Refrigerate in a lightly floured container: up to 3 days
  • Risk of mold in humid conditions — when in doubt, refrigerate

Fully dried — brittle

  • Allow 24–48 hours depending on humidity and thickness
  • Paper bag in a cool dry pantry: 2–3 months
  • Airtight jar or tin after drying: 4+ months, closer to store-bought shelf life

Freezing

  • Spread shaped orecchiette on a semola- or rice-flour-dusted tray without touching
  • Flash-freeze in a single layer for 1–2 hours until firm
  • Transfer to a freezer bag — they'll stay separate and pour freely
  • Keeps well for up to 2 months with no noticeable quality loss

Cooking from frozen

  • Drop frozen orecchiette directly into boiling salted water — no thawing needed
  • Add 1–2 minutes to your usual cook time
  • Taste early — thickness varies more with a hand-shaped pasta than a machine-cut one