Over the weekend, Harry nabbed this dope vintage Vitantonio cavatelli maker at an estate sale.  Mike Kale, one of our newest employees who also writes about cooking over at Hey Try This, was all over it.  He took that pasta crank back to his crib and made big heaping portions of little seashell shaped pasta dumplings for him and his lady.

Making fresh cavatelli at home is a blast and super easy.  We’ll have a bunch of these machines in stock soon, so drop by and pick one up!

Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli

(makes about 1 lb. of pasta)

1 cup Daisy All Purpose Flour
1 cup 100% Durum Wheat Semolina Flour
1 extra large egg
1/2 lb. Narragansett ricotta cheese

1. In a mixing bowl, combine AP flour and semolina flour.  Dump flour mixture onto a large work surface.  Create a well in the center of the pile of flour, so that it looks like a volcano. In the mixing bowl, whisk together egg and ricotta. Pour mixture into center of flour volcano.

2. Make your index finger into a hook like you’re pretending to be a pirate.  Slowly stir the egg and ricotta, picking up a little bit of flour as you go.  As the dough starts to come together, push more of the flour rim of the volcano into the lava pit.  When the dough is solid enough to handle, grab it and roughly shape it into a ball.

5.  If the dough is a crumbly mess, it’s too dry: add a little water.  If the dough is runny, sticky nightmare, it’s too wet: add a little semolina.

6. Take your dough ball and knead it for at least 8 minutes.  Set a timer and don’t get lazy or ADD about it.  Wrap the ball in some plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for another 8 minutes.

7. Divide dough ball into manageable sections (about 4).  Roll each section into a 1/2″ thick snake on a floured work surface.  Run the snakes through the wooden rollers of your shiny, new cavatelli maker.

8. Drop the fresh cavatelli into boiling, salted water.  After 30 seconds or so, give them a little stir so that they don’t stick together.  When they start to float to the top (about 4 minutes) taste one for doneness.  They’ll probably need about 1 more minute, but that’s your call.

9.  Remove wet cavatelli from water with a spider skimmer.  Dump into your favorite sauce.   Toss pasta and sauce like a salad until everything is well coated.  Divide into bowls and finish with some olive oil, grated cheese and/or breadcrumbs.

(Saucing suggestion: Browned butter with fresh cut sage from our hydroponic garden, some Meat Hook Sweet Italian sausage and crushed pepper flakes. Top it with Fulvi Pecorino-Romano.  That’s our riff on the super-rad Frankies Spuntino dish.)