Homemade Cavatelli

This recipe made 2 lbs 11 oz of cavatelli.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Semolina Flour
• 1.5 cups Bread Flour (can also use AP Flour)
• 2 overflowing tsps Salt
• 2 Tbsps olive oil
• 1.5 cups water, plus extra as needed

Instruction:

1. In mixer (can be done by hand, just takes longer) dump everything listed.
2. Use bread hook and start mixing on lowest speed.
3. Once the flour will not escape the bowl, up the speed.
4. If some of the flour does not incorporate into the dough (it will sit on the bottom and stay powder) add water 1 Tbsp at a time. The last time I made it it took 2 additional Tbsp of water.
5. If the dough is too wet (ie sticky) add more flour of either kind.
6. During this time you may want to remove the dough and flip it upside down in the bowl and then continue stirring in order to get a homogenous dough.
7. The dough should be smooth and stay together.
8. Once everything is incorporated up the speed of your mixer to what feels comfortable and allow the mixer to continue kneading 5-7 minutes. The dough may escape the bowl, just stop the mixer, flip up the head (or pull down your bowl) and push it all back down into the middle of the bowl and start up the mixer again.
9. Remove the dough from the bowl and wrap it in saran wrap to keep it moist.
10. Prep the surface that you will manipulate the dough on. For me this means clean my counter and dry it off. For some this will mean flour a cutting board or some combination of the two. I find I do not need additional flour for my pasta pieces.
11. Have a kitchen towel on hand to cover the dough that you are not working with.
12. Cut the dough into 3. Leave 2 of the dough pieces wrapped in the saran wrap.
13. Cut the remaining dough piece into 8.
14. Place any of the pieces you are not working with under the kitchen towel.
15. Roll each of those pieces into 1/3″ diameter ropes. As each piece is rolled place it back underneath the towl.
16. Once all 8 have been rolled, line them up together (I will squish any ends that are too pointy to be the same diameter as the rest).
17. Cut so that each resulting piece of dough is 1/3″ in length. Separate any pieces that stick together.
18. Once you have cut the pieces place them under the towel again.
19. Piece by piece place one cut piece of dough in front of you with the cut side towards you. Using a finger or the side of your thumb roll the dough towards or away from you to create a smooth shell shape. Place on a cookie sheet for freezing.
20. Repeat for the other 2 thirds of the dough.
21. Freeze.
22. Cook from frozen.