We love nothing more than pouring ourselves a large glass of red wine on these cold winter evenings, a rich Barolo or a tangy Nero d’Avola never fails to hit the spot. Today however, we’re taking our appreciation for vino rosso a step further. Pasta Ubriaca literally translates to mean “drunken pasta”, and with this recipe our chef Roberta has crafted the perfect pairing. Whilst it is common to use red wine in a ragù or pasta sauce, what we’re doing in this recipe is adding the wine to our pasta dough. This gives each precious pasta piece a beautiful pinky, reddish hue.
This recipe is a step-by-step guide to make red wine orecchiette, though if you’d prefer to make a different pasta shape, or to add red wine to an egg pasta dough, you simply follow all of the same steps that you would normally, but substitute a little of the water that you add to the flour with your red wine.
Make Our Delicious Pasta Ubriaca
Serves: 3
Prep Time: 2-3 hours (including resting and drying time)
Calories per serving: 261 kcal
Ingredients
- 200g Semolina flour (plus extra for the work surface)
- ½ Glass red wine (about 75ml)
- 1 Glass luke-warm water (about 100ml)
Method
Step 1: Making the Dough
- Pour out the flour onto a clean, flat work surface and pile it into a mound. Make a small well in the middle of the mound.
- Gradually add the red wine to the well, working with your fingers to combine it with the flour. When you’ve added all of your wine, if the mixture hasn’t formed a dough, add a little of the water and continue to combine until all of the flour has been incorporated (be careful not to add too much water as this will make a very sticky dough).
Step 2: Kneading the Dough
- Lightly flour your clean work surface.
- Knead the dough by pressing the heel of one hand into the ball, keeping your fingers high.
- Press down on the dough while pushing it firmly away from you. The dough should stretch and roll under your hand to create a shell-like shape.
- Turn the dough over, then press into the dough with your knuckles, one hand at a time. This process should be carried out around 10 times.
- Roll the dough back into a ball and repeat the stretching and knuckling process, using more flour if needed to prevent any stickiness.
- Repeat the process for about 10-20 minutes until the dough is smooth and silky. Roll the dough into a smooth ball.
Step 3: Letting the Dough Rest
- Place the dough in a small bowl and cover with a cloth or plastic wrap.
- Let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes at room temperature, or up to 1 day in the refrigerator. If the dough has been refrigerated, let it stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour before rolling and shaping.
Step 4: Rolling the Pasta
- Once rested, separate the ball of dough into several even pieces and roll each one into a long, rope-like shape with the palm of your hand – they should be about 1cm in width.
- Using a knife, cut the ropes into small pillows of dough around 1cm in length.
- This is the key step – using a non-serrated knife, press down slightly on a piece of dough and roll it along the work surface so that the dough turns in on itself. Press your finger into the concave to make the shape into a dome. Repeat with each piece of the dough.
- Leave the orecchiette to dry on a clean tea-towel or wire rack until you’re ready to cook them, ideally for a couple of hours.
- If you’ve made too much pasta and you don’t want to cook it all immediately, check out our useful guide to storing fresh pasta so that you can save it for another time!
Step 5: Cooking the Pasta
- When you’re ready to eat, bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a generous amount of salt.
- Put your orecchiette in the pan and cook for around 3 minutes, until al dente. Don’t forget to taste one before you remove them from the water!
- Drain your pasta and add to your chosen sauce, toss well to coat and then serve. Buon appetito!
What sauce should I serve with my Pasta Ubriaca?
Orecchiette are a very versatile pasta and pair well with a multitude of sauces. Their concave form allows delicious morsels to nestle within and their slightly granular texture helps sauces to cling to them. For these enriched pieces of pasta however, we recommend a sauce that is bold enough to stand up to the vino. A delicious Amatriciana will never disappoint. Alternatively, our famous Red Pesto is quick and easy to make, but extremely delicious to devour!
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