Cavatelli with Basil Pesto
Serves 4
Ingredients
Cavatelli
- 227 g semolina flour plus more for dusting
- 120 g warm water
- 6 g salt
- 2 Tbsp butter for finishing
Pesto
- 3 oz basil leaves
- 1 garlic clove smashed
- 2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
- Zest of 1 lemon
- ½ cup olive oil plus more as needed
- ⅓ cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese plus more for serving
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl mix semolina, water and salt until combined.
- Transfer the shaggy dough to a clean counter and knead until a smooth ball is formed, about 7-10 minutes.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
- While the dough rests, prepare the pesto. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare an ice bath.
- Blanch basil for 30 seconds in the boiling water, and immediately transfer to the ice bath. Keep the boiling water for cooking the cavatelli later on.
- Squeeze out all the excess water from the basil and transfer to a blender. Add in garlic, pine nuts, lemon zest and olive oil. Blend until smooth, adding more olive oil if needed to blend.
- Transfer pesto to a bowl and fold in the pecorino cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place in the fridge until ready to use.
- Once dough has rested, form the cavatelli.
- Divide dough into 6 equal-ish pieces.
- On a floured surface, roll each piece into about a 12 inch log. Cut logs into ¼ inch pieces.
- Take each ¼ inch piece, and using a butter knife push down on the pasta as you roll it away from yourself and you will create a cute cavatelli shape! So easy! *
- Transfer cavatelli to a sheet tray dusted with semolina flour. Repeat with all the dough. **
- Bring the large pot of water back to a boil, and season heavily with salt.
- Drop cavatelli into boiling water (you can do this in batches if necessary), and cook until they float and are al dente, about 5-7 minutes.
- Save some pasta water and drain cavatelli.
- Add butter to the large pot that you cooked the pasta in and melt over medium heat. Add pasta back in along with a splash of pasta water. Toss to coat pasta in the butter.
- Add in your desired amount of pesto and toss again until coated, adding more pasta water if needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve topped with more pecorino and freshly cracked black pepper.
Video
Notes
*You can keep the cavatelli in this shape or you can add ridges by using a gnocchi board, like in the video
**Cavatelli can be frozen at this point, spread out on a sheet tray. Once frozen they can be transferred to a bag and kept frozen. They can be cooked in the same manner as above from frozen. This is great if you don’t want to cook all the pasta right away!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
