Cavatelli
So its clear as day that I've got a serious hankering for pasta again, almost like rediscovering a little bit of magic I've not used in a while. Cavatelli is a small shell shape known as "Priests ears" in Italian, it almost looks like a cross between the dried, common fusilli & orrecchiette pasta's. It can be made with a cavatelli machine or the hard way, hand pressed with a sushi matt. Not that they used the matt in the old days, it would have been a gnocchi paddle. My kids wanted a little go at making their own pasta so I thought I'd start with this one as we could all work at it as a family and you don't need to get it perfect.
Recipe:
400g Tipo 00 flour
4 Large Eggs
5g salt
10ml Olive oil
It's a fairly basic dough. Mix it altogether and leave it to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. Roll out with a pin, or a machine but don't roll it out too thin. Cut it into a lengths and roll it out to create a long thick piece and cut it into 1/2 inch bits. Press them into the sushi matt with your thumb in a forward motion pushing away from you.
Leave to dry for a while on a pasta board or a floured bench and cook when ready in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Keep it simple and don't over complicate the pasta, we had it with a little ragù and a serious amount of parmesan... Just the way it should be on a wet & windy Monday night.
