Yesterday at the market I was introduced into a new way of making a cavatelli style noodle by our friends at Lore Pasta. I made our base cavatelli dough for Mario, his A.D.D., and occasionally idle hands. He quickly set to work and within no time had rolled a beautiful pile of pasta. The dough was cut into longer pieces than we traditionally use for cavatelli. It was then rolled on a pasta board (the Cavarola board) with 3 fingers to produce a longer noodle that was both elegant and rustic. I enjoyed its slightly thinner walls against my teeth and the length was excellent for catching a bit more sauce. The cavatelli was beautiful and made me look at this type of pasta in a new way.
Base Ricotta Cavatelli
250 grams all purpose flour
1.25 grams baking soda
1.25 grams salt
250 grams ricotta cheese
Put the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium size bowl and stir to combine the ingredients. Add the ricotta cheese and use your fingers to break the cheese into the flour mixture. Continue to work the cheese into the flour, creating a uniform dough. Knead the dough in the bowl or on a counter top for 1 minute. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes, to allow the flour to hydrate. The dough may also be vacuum sealed to expedite hydration and rolled immediately.
Use a bench scraper or a knife to cut the dough into 8 slices. Roll the slices into ropes, about 1-cm thick. Cut the ropes into pieces 4-cm in length. Use 3-4 fingers to press and pull the dough pieces on a gnocchi board or cavarola board, pulling the pieces toward you and allowing it to fold over your fingertips and itself to create each individual cavatelli. Continue with the remaining dough.
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