orecchiette con ragù di braciole
recipe for a homemade pasta served with stuffed beef rolls in a tomato sauce
Orecchiette is an ear-shaped pasta mostly widespread in the Italian southern region of Puglia. It comes in different sizes and names depending on the province.
The pasta consists of only two ingredients: semolina (durum wheat flour) and water. Unlike how often done in the north of Italy, no eggs are involved.
This recipe - orecchiette con ragù di braciole is based on homemade pasta served with meat rolls stuffed with lard, parsley, garlic, chilli and pecorino and slowly cooked in a rich tomato sauce. The dish is often served during Sunday gatherings in the area surrounding Bari and I tried it out a couple of times once visiting the region. Delicious!
Homemade orecchiette with ragù di braciole recipe
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Orecchiette
400g finely ground semolina (durum wheat flour)
160g warm water
Meat filling
8 slices of beef (around 300g)
2 garlic cloves
2 fresh red chilli (or use dry chilli flakes)
fresh parsley (around 15g)
pecorino romano (around 30g)
8 slices of lard
black pepper
sea salt
Sauce
half white onion
1 garlic clove
20g lard
80g white wine
5g fresh parsley
500g tomato passata
1 bay leaf
For serving
basil
pecorino romano
Method
I encourage making orecchiette a day before and drying the pasta overnight (you can even store this dried pasta for longer periods). If you prefer to make all dish components on the same day, keep in mind that the pasta needs to dry out before cooking!
Orecchiette dough
Place the semolina (no need to sieve it) on the counter and make a well in the middle. Gradually start adding warm water to the centre while stirring the flour into the liquid using a fork or a chopstick. Don’t add all the water at once and start with about half of it. If the flour is too dry, add more liquid. Remember that the amount of liquid depends on the humidity of the environment and the flour, so you might need to adjust the amount a little.
Form a shaggy ball with your hands, then start to knead the dough. Press the heel of your palm in the middle of the dough and start stretching it away from your body. Fold the dough, press down and rotate it. Repeat the process. In the beginning, the dough might be quite dry and hard to knead, but give it a bit more time and it will improve.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it looks smooth. Cover it with a clingfilm to prevent drying and let it relax for around 30 minutes.
Shaping orecchiette
Once the dough has rested, you will notice that it is smoother and more elastic.
Give the dough a brief kneading and cut a small piece with a bench scraper - around 1/4 of the whole amount. Roll the smaller part with your hands and shape it into a long thin log. Make sure to roll out the dough with the palm of your hand rather than your fingers (otherwise you end up with uneven thickness). Dust the counter with semolina if your dough is sticky. Grab a small serrated knife and slice a few small pieces at a time (as shown above). Cover the rest of the dough with a clingfilm to prevent drying. The reason for not segmenting all dough into pieces is to prevent drying, you want to do the same process in rounds.
When following this process, keep in mind to make all resulting pasta pieces of quite comparable size - if they aren’t, they will cook at different rates, resulting in some of them being under- or overcooked if they’re all in the same pot.
For each small piece, place it on a counter and drag the knife over the dough curling it up and going towards you (as shown above). While you drag, you need to put a bit of pressure - less at the beginning and the end and more in the centre. Then carefully detach the dough from the knife, and invert it using your thumb to create a shell-like shape with one side being wrinkled and the other smooth.
Dry completely the orecchiette (I dried mine overnight).
Veg prep (used for the meat rolls and the sauce)
Brunoise white onion, red chilli and garlic, chop parsley and grate pecorino.
Rolling beef slices
Lay a thin slice of beef on a plate. If your slices are thick - pound them with a meat muller or a rolling pin (I recommend putting a clingfilm over the meat to avoid splatter and prevent the meat from tearing). Salt and black pepper on the top side of the meat.
Turn the slice and add the filling. First a slice of lard, then top it with chopped parsley, followed by grated pecorino, red chilli, and brunoise of garlic (photo below). Only use the quantities as indicated in the ingredient list (some of the same vegetables are also used for the sauce).
Prepare a roll by folding the left and right sides over the ingredients (check the photo below). Next, roll the meat up starting from the side closest to you and carrying on rolling tightly to the end. Once the rolls are done - put 2 toothpicks through the middle of the roll to secure the ingredients and ensure they stay in place when cooking.
Sear meat rolls
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Place the meat when the olive oil warms up on the pan and sear both sides until browned. Set aside (the rolls are not cooked thoroughly at this point).
Tomato sauce
Bring a pot of salted water to boil (for orecchiette).
Set the same pan you seared the meat on to medium heat - don’t clean the pan as the brown bits will add flavour to the sauce. Sautè onion until translucent, add garlic and lard and cook until soft. Deglaze the pan with white wine and scrape off any browned bits of the pan. Add the passata, bay leaf, and parsley. Season the sauce with salt and black pepper, add the meat and simmer for around 1 hour over low heat. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
Serving
Once the meat and the sauce are ready, remove the toothpicks from the meat and cut the rolls in half.
Drop orecchiette in boiling salted water and cook the pasta for around 10 minutes. Once they rise to the surface, try one, and if soft enough, drain the pasta.
Mix it in with the tomato sauce, add the beef, and topped with fresh basil and pecorino.