Thursday, December 1, 2022

Typical of Salento are the orecchiette 



Delighting the palate, relaxing the spirit and taking care of your health: how many precious advantages can homemade pasta, typical of Salento cuisine, reserve for you? Genuine and exquisite, hand-crafted pasta is one of the most beloved dishes of the Salento tradition! Salento loves pasta, the one prepared by the women of the house, with master hands, delicate yet vigorous, expert and eager, those hands that work water and flour, knead and form.

The homemade pasta of Salento is one of the precious treasures that the tradition of the land of the sun and the sea preserves and enhances from generation to generation, from grandmother to mother to daughter. Kneading pasta is an art, as is the precision of the shapes, its cooking and the preparation of its seasoning. Kneaded with water and flourand strictly with energetic and decisive circular movements, the Salento artisan pasta is a genuine and healthy dish, made with simple and natural ingredients. It can be prepared with wheat flour or barley flour or with a mix between the two: the difference lies in the consistency of the dough (barley flour makes the dough more consistent) and in its color (darker if with barley flour).
Genuineness, economy and delicacy: these are the three watch words that have always inspired the typical dishes of the Salento tradition, healthy for the body, a feather for the pockets, an absolute delight for the palate!

Typical of Salento are the orecchiette and maccheroncini, the so-called pasta maritata, because in this dish the woman (the orecchietta) is accompanied by the man (the maccherone). The orecchiette are small discs of dough with a circle in the center, usually dug with the thumb, while the minchiareddi are a long dough dug with wire. The typical condiment of the Salento tradition for homemade pasta is the one with fresh tomato and basil sauce to which is added, for those who like it, grated cheese, cacioricotta or pecorino cheese (known in Salento asricotta schianta). A delicacy that you will hardly be able to satisfy yourself with once you have tasted the first forkful!
Exquisite in the same way also the ciciri and tria, or chickpeas served with tria, a pasta prepared by hand and similar to tagliatelle but kneaded only with water and flour, without eggs. The touch of class typical of the cuisine of Salento? A part of this dough is fried in oil, and it is from this custom that the name of tria derives from the Arabic
itrya, or fried dough.

Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil to taste
500 g San Marzano Tomatoes
Onion to taste
Salt
Basil to taste
350 g Cacioricotta

Preparation
In a pan put the oil and chopped onion, sauté and then add the tomatoes cut into pieces and cook them until they are wilted, then pass them with the vegetable puree to obtain the pulp, put back on the heat, add salt and cook a little more until it shrinks then add the basil if you like. Cook the orecchiette in salted water, drain and pour them into the pan with the sauce, mix and serve adding on each plate a handful of cacioricotta or salted ricotta

Notes
I have fresh tomatoes all year round because in summer I freeze them or keep them in jars.

 

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