Ready to get your hands in the dough and roll your way into real Italian cooking? 🇮🇹
In this video, we’ll show you how to make three iconic Southern Italian pastas from scratch — Orecchiette, Cavatelli, and Trofie, all without eggs, just like Nonna used to do it. This is the traditional way, using just semolina flour, warm water, and a good dose of patience.
Whether you’re planning your next Italian dinner night or just dreaming of Puglia or Liguria, this step-by-step guide gives you the confidence to try it at home. We’ll walk you through:
* How to mix and knead the perfect semolina dough
* The *real* technique to shape orecchiette like a local
* Rolling perfect cavatelli with just your fingers
* Getting that classic Trofie twist using a traditional method
* Tips on drying, storing, and cooking your handmade pasta
Andiamo! Let’s bring a little bit of Italy into your kitchen. 🇮🇹✨
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Eggless pasta made with semolina flour and water is the hallmark of southern Italian regions like Puglia, Vasilica and parts of Sicily. Today we will focus on semolina based egg-free pasta keeping it authentic and still delicious. Perfect for shapes like uricete kavatelli and trophy. Forget eggs in southern Italy pasta is made with just two things semolina flour and water and it’s been that way for centuries. In the north you’ll find egg richch doughs. But down south, it’s semolina, the golden heart of Durham wheat. Today, we’re going to show you how to make traditional southern Italian pasta from scratch, plus three iconic shapes and the sauces they were born to pair with. Semolar machinata de granoduro, meaning doublemeilled durham wheat. This pasta is so simple to make. This is all you’ll need. 400 g of semolina flour. 200 to 220 mm of warm water. Start with less, add as needed. Optional, pinch of salt. Note: Let dough rest for 30 plus minutes covered. Hydration improves texture. Now, let’s take a deep dive into the method. Mixing and kneading the dough. Mix the flour and water gradually. Don’t rush it. This isn’t fast food, it’s slow love. The texture will be firmer than egg pasta and grainier at first. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Wrap it in plastic or cover with a bowl and let it rest. Make a coffee. Well, that’s a why not Italian style. So now we are the cutting dough into pieces, rolling ropes and shaping phase orete. Roll into ropes, cut, press and drag with thumb. After resting, cut off a small piece of dough. Leave the rest covered with a towel. Roll it into a rope about as thick as your finger. Slice into small chunks about 1 cm wide. Now take a round tipped knife. Press and drag each piece toward you. The dough will curl. Flip it over with your fingers to reveal the signature ear shape. Concave in the center, thick at the edges. Repeat until all the dough is shaped. Dust a tray with semolina and lay them out in a single layer, no touching. Let them dry at room temperature overnight if possible or at least for an hour. Once they’ve firmed up, sprinkle with more semolina and toss gently to keep them separate. They are now ready to cook. Cavatelli. Use fingers or a noky board. Knead the dough well until it’s smooth, firm, and dense. It should feel like a solid brick in your hands. Cover and let it rest for about 3 hours. Once rested, cut the dough into flat rectangles. From each rectangle, slice strips about 1.5 cm wide. Now, shape the pasta. Use the flat side of a knife blade to press down and drag each piece. As you pull, the dough will curl into a small shell, rounded in the middle, pinched at the edges. Keep going until you’ve transformed all the dough into cavatelli. Trophy. Twist thin strips between palms. Take a few small pieces of dough and roll them into tiny balls about the size of a hazelnut. Keep the rest covered so it doesn’t dry out. Now roll each ball under your palm on the board, but not in a straight line. Move your hand at a diagonal to twist the dough. This creates that signature trophy shape. Thin at the tips, thicker in the center. Repeat the process until all your dough is shaped. If the dough starts sticking or won’t twist easily, dampen your hands or wipe the board with a moist cloth. Each shape holds sauce in its own way. And every nana will tell you hers is the best. Of course, there are the regional sauces to match each of these. These are a must or at least heavily recommended orete with chimea aka broccoli ra. So what exactly is broccoli ra? Let’s talk about a true icon of Italian cooking, broccoli ra or as it’s known in Italy, sime draa or rapini. This humble leafy green has roots that stretch all the way back to ancient Rome. It’s been a staple in our kitchens for centuries, especially in the south, thanks to its bold, slightly bitter flavor and its ability to grow just about anywhere across Italy’s fertile countryside. It thrives in cooler months, fall, winter, and early spring, making it a seasonal favorite when the weather turns crisp. But it’s not just about taste. This vegetable is packed with nutritional power. Vitamins A, C, and K, plus minerals like iron, calcium, and potassium. It’s great for your eyes, bones, immune system, and even your heart. Low in calories, high in fiber, and loaded with antioxidants like gluten and sulforophane. It isn’t just good, it’s seriously good for you. That’s why it’s more than a side dish. It’s part of a long tradition of making the most of what grows locally and eating in a way that’s both delicious and nourishing. Pasta number two is kavatelli pomodoro. We begin with the pomodoro, tomato, the heart of so many Italian dishes. This simple tomato sauce is made with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and fresh basil. As it simmers gently on the stove top, its aroma fills the kitchen with warmth and promise. While the sauce bubbles away, we turn to our pasta, handmade kavatelli. Rustic, humble, and full of character. Each piece is shaped to hold the pomodoro perfectly, catching the sauce in its hollow center. It’s not just pasta, it’s a perfect pairing where every bite delivers a burst of honest home-cooked flavor. Handmade cavatelli is one of those pastas that invites everyone to the table, even before it’s cooked. From rolling out the dough to shaping each little piece, it’s a task best shared. As the old saying goes, many hands make light work. So, gather the kids, call in some friends. This is pasta making as it’s meant to be. Hands-on, joyful, and just a little bit messy. And when you sit down to eat what you’ve made together, it’s not just dinner. It’s a meal seasoned with effort, laughter, and care. And somehow that always makes it taste even better. And last one for today is trophy. If you want to catch all our upcoming recipes, you can subscribe to our channel and also find all our videos, not just the food series. Okay, back to it. Trophy are short hand rolled curls of pasta and a true taste of legia. Each twist tells a story of humble ingredients, clever hands, and the timeless art of making something from almost nothing. The exact origins of the name are still debated. Some say it comes from strafujia, a laggerian word meaning to rub, describing how the dough is shaped. Others point to the Greek trophy meaning nourishment. Whatever the case, trophy have been around for centuries, long before they appeared on restaurant menus. They were once made by women sitting on doorsteps, chatting as they rolled dough into ropes and twisted them into shape between their palms. Unlike egg-based pastas, trophy are made with just semolina flour and water. In rugged mountainous Lagora, where farmland was scarce and hens were hard to keep, this simplicity wasn’t just tradition, it was necessity. Durham wheat arrived by sea, traded through maritime roots, making it the perfect staple for a coastal region shaped by both land and waves. Trophy pasta dough. Ingredients: 2 and 2/3 cups semolina flour, about 400 g. 3/4 to 1 cup warm water, about 200 250 mm. A pinch of salt. Instructions. Make the dough in the same way as explained earlier. It’s worth noting that the dough is always the same. It’s the shape that changes to connect with the sauce in different ways. Shape the trophy. Cut off small portions and roll into ropes about a/4 in 0.5 to 0.7 cm thick. Cut into 1 and 1/2 in 4 cm pieces. Then roll each piece under your palm or along a board to create that classic trophy twist. Then set aside. Place shaped trophy on a tray dusted with semolina or flour to prevent sticking. How to cook trophy. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the trophy and cook for 4 to 6 minutes until they float and are al dente, meaning a little bit chewy. Drain and serve immediately, traditionally with fresh basil pesto. Storage tips. Let fresh trophy air dry for up to 2 days or freeze on a tray in a single layer. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag for up to 2 months. Southern sauces are bold, humble, and designed to hug the pasta, not drown it. A couple of more tips. Salt the water like the Adriatic generously. Fresh pasta cooks fast. 3 to 5 minutes. Toss it in the sauce. Don’t rinse it. You want the starch to bind everything together. Italian trick. Reserve the pasta water. And when you have added the pasta, after draining it to the sauce, also add a small amount of the reserved pasta water to assist in the binding process and making a smoother, more cohesive attachment to the pasta. Only a little bit from as little as 2 tablespoons. Only use wooden spoons and no cream in the pesto. This is pasta the southern way. No eggs, no frills, just wheat and water and salt. Every shape is a story. Every bite a memory waiting to be made. If you love authentic Italian recipes, subscribe for more. And if you want to discover the regions behind the flavors, grab our guide books and let Italy come to life on your plate. Thank you for watching. I’ll see you in the next one. Buanaito.