Homemade Apulian pasta

In the rediscovery of Apulian food culture, the role of homemade pasta was fundamental. A rustic pasta prepared by mixing traditional durum wheat flour with re-milled semolina flour, with a pale yellow colour. The dough is made only with water, eggs are rarely added as is the tradition of Emilian or Piedmontese pasta for example.

The different forms of Apulian homemade pasta

• The shape of homemade pasta is very varied. The traditional strips of pasta, resembling tagliatelle, can be made in many ways. By rolling out the puff pastry thinly and then cutting it with a knife they are called trie, with which the famous soup with chickpeas is made: “ciceri e trie”.

• Or with a special rolling pin equipped with blades and then they are called troccoli, always shaped like tagliatelle but with an oval section. These are used to accompany meat sauces (veal or, better yet, horse) which fall apart during long cooking.

• Then there is the large family of “strascinate” pastas, that is, strips of pasta whose shape is given with a skilful stroke of the fingers by dragging them on the work surface, such as cavatelli, with an elongated shape or the very famous orecchiette, small disks of pasta that a deft flick of the index finger transforms into the ideal pasta to be accompanied by sauces based on stewed vegetables, such as the famous turnip tops, of disarming simplicity but with an unforgettable taste.

• And then we remember the twisted pappardelle, strips of pasta folded on themselves and intertwined, the sagne ‘ncannulate, also suitable for particularly tasty sauces.

• There is also a large and varied family, that of maccheroni, pasta made with the help of a special iron, cut into strips and worked by sliding it on the wire, until it gives the desired shape, including the unforgettable minchiareddi. Their hollow shape seems to have been created specifically to accommodate tomato sauce.