One of the easiest homemade pastas you’ll ever make with no pasta machine necessary. Follow my easy step by step instructions on how to make cavatelli with only 2 ingredients and you’ll have a fresh batch of pasta to enjoy in an hour!
I recently posted my mother’s recipe for Chicken Cacciatore where I mentioned that she always serves this dish with her homemade cavatelli. Since then I’ve had several requests for this recipe. In reality, I’ve never made my own cavatelli until now and I can’t believe how easy it is!
All you need are two ingredients (unless you count the salt): semolina flour and water. That’s it!
And you don’t necessarily need the gnocchi board to shape them. It’s just that I find they look so pretty with the ridges, wouldn’t you agree? But you can simply roll them with your fingers just like my mother does. I’ll show you how to do that further below.
What is semolina?
Semolina is a type of flour made from durum wheat. This is the same flour used to make dry pasta so it comes as no surprise that semolina is most commonly used in Italy! It can also be used in making bread, as I did in this Semolina Bread with Sesame Seeds recipe.
Semolina is much higher in gluten as compared to regular flour and this helps the pasta hold it’s shape. It also has a courser, grainier texture and has a pale yellow color.
If you’re wondering where you can purchase semolina, you’ll find it in most grocery stores usually near the other types of flour.
Let me show you how easy this pasta is to make! You’ll find the detailed printable recipe card at the end of this post.
How to make Cavatelli:
Place semolina flour in a bowl or in a mound directly on your work surface. I prefer starting off my dough in a bowl and once the dough starts to take shape, I transfer it to my counter in order to knead it. Stir salt into the flour.
Bring 1 1/4 cups of water to a boil. Make a well in the center of the semolina and pour in 1 cup of boiled water.
Use a fork or wooden spoon to begin combining the semolina flour with the water. Use your hands to gather the crumbly bits to shape into a dough. The dough will be very crumbly and grainy, this is normal!
Transfer to a clean work surface and knead until a smooth dough is formed. This will take about 5 minutes. The dough must be neither sticky nor too dry and should feel slightly tacky. If it is too dry, add a spoonful of the remaining water at a time, as needed. Wrap in plastic wrap and set on your counter to rest for 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces. I find it easier to roll a smaller portion of dough at a time. Keep the remaining dough wrapped in order to prevent it from drying out.
Roll each piece of dough into a long rope of about 1/2 cm in diameter. Place your hands in the center of the piece of dough and roll by applying pressure outward to lengthen the rope. Do not add extra flour to your work surface.
Cut into approximate 2 cm pieces. Now choose one of two methods to shape the cavatelli:
Roll onto a gnocchi board…
or use your index and middle fingers to press down on the dough and roll toward you to create an indentation:
Place cavatelli in a single layer on parchment paper or clean dish towel covered baking sheets.
Cook the cavatelli in a large pot of salted boiling water until they float to the surface. The cooking time may vary according to the thickness of your pasta. Mine took about 3 minutes.
What do I serve my homemade cavatelli with?
Basically, anything you’d like! Use cavatelli to replace other types of pasta in almost any recipe that calls for a medium length pasta. The most common pairings for cavatelli are rapini (broccoli rabe) or broccoli.
Here are a few recipe suggestions:
Pasta with Rapini, Anchovies and Crushed Almonds
Sicilian Pasta with Cauliflower
Pasta with Zucchini and Mushrooms
Other delicious pairings include basil pesto, pistachio pesto or my mom’s famous meatballs with tomato sauce. The choices are endless!
Tips and suggestions:
- This recipe can be easily doubled to feed a larger crowd.
- Cooking time may vary according to the thickness of your cavatelli.
- Cavatelli can be frozen: place baking sheets with cavatelli in the freezer until they are firm. Transfer to well sealed freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Frozen cavatelli will take a few minutes longer to cook.
This is a great recipe to get the kids involved in the kitchen! If you try out his easy recipe, let me know how it turned out by rating it in the recipe card below! Buon appetito!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups semolina flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1- 1 1/4 cups boiling water
Instructions
- Place the semolina flour in a bowl or in a mound directly on your work surface. I prefer starting off my dough in a bowl and once the dough starts to take shape, I transfer it to my counter in order to knead it. Stir salt into the flour.
- Make a well in the center of the semolina and pour in 1 cup of the boiled water.
- Use a fork or wooden spoon to begin combining the semolina flour with the water. Use your hands to gather the crumbly bits to shape into a dough. The dough will be very crumbly and grainy, this is normal!
- Transfer to a clean work surface and knead until a smooth dough is formed. This will take about 5 minutes. The dough must neither be sticky nor too dry. It should feel slightly tacky. If it is too dry, add a spoonful of the remaining boiled water at a time, as needed. Wrap in plastic wrap and set on your counter to rest for 30 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces. I find it easier to roll a smaller portion of dough at a time.
- Roll into a long rope of about 1/2 cm in diameter. Place your hands in the center of the piece of dough and roll by applying pressure outward to lengthen the rope. Do not add extra flour to your work surface.
- Cut into approximate 2 cm pieces. Roll either using a gnocchi board or with your index and third finger to form an indentation in the dough.
- Place in a single layer on a parchment paper or clean dish towel covered baking sheets. Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water. The cooking time may vary according to the thickness of your pasta. Mine took about 3 minutes to cook.
- Serve with your favorite sauce.
Notes
- This recipe can be easily doubled to feed a larger crowd.
- Cooking time may vary according to the thickness of your cavatelli.
- Cavatelli can be frozen: place baking sheets with cavatelli in the freezer until they are firm. Transfer to well sealed freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Frozen cavatelli will take a few minutes longer to cook.
In my mind there is nothing as joyous as a plate of Cavatelli sitting in front of me! It is truly a delight for me to sink my teeth into these small dumpling-like pastas, always evoking memories of my mama with a huge mound of flour (sometimes only plain flour, no semolina, depending on budget) on the enameled kitchen table, a well in the middle of it and gently pouring water into it a bit at a time until she had the proper consistency. She (and I) used a fork to get the line definitions but when in a hurry she just used her thumb to make a bit of an indentation in the little balls of dough and that was mighty fine too. It has been a long time since I made Cavatelli but thanks to you I am inspired to make a batch for my family when we crawl finally out of these days of keeping our distance, illness and deaths behind us (and it will happen) when we will together enjoy our Easter feast with stuffed artichokes, antipasto, Pizza Chiena, Cavatelli in a velvety and luscious tomato sauce, then a giant and beautiful spring leg of lamb with roasted potatoes with onions, asparagus, on and on until we come to the usual Easter pies, mostly made with various ricotta fillings. I will soon by 84, never am sure how much longer I will have to enjoy making the things I grew up with, but I will not stop until I drop! That said, inspiteof the sadness of our country’s and the world’s current situation, I wish you, Nadia, and all those you hold dear, the blessings of a holy Easter. Thank you again for keeping old traditions alive.
Dearest Anna, I’m so glad to hear form you! I must admit, with all that’s going on in recent weeks you have come to my mind and I was hoping all is well with you! That said, I agree with you, I just love this toothsome pasta as well. Sometimes my mom makes them with all purpose flour too. I simply found them easier to roll with the semolina. Food has such a wonderful way of evoking wonderful memories, I totally agree! I enjoyed making several batches with the help of my children as I perfected this recipe. Together, we made a batch in less than an hour. Your description of your Easter feast is mouth watering! As I told my mom, we will celebrate later when this is all over. It’s never too late! Until then, I wish you lots of good health so that you can continue creating these feasts for your family! Stay well my dear and thanks again for sharing your thoughts and memories with me. They are truly appreciated!