A few weeks ago after a nice day of golfing Jason and I stopped into Ianiro’s Italian store on Mayfield Road in Munson. We were just going to grab a few beverages and some sandwiches, but something caught my eye in their freezer case, homemade cavatelli. See my old lady (she would kill me if she knew I called her that) just loves cavatelli and usually the only time she gets homemade cavatelli is when we go down to Little Italy. Plus, she’s been stressed out lately over the wedding planning, so I thought I’d be a sweetheart and get them for her. To my surprise for maybe a 1/4 of a pound they were $3.99! When it comes to food, I’m not a cheap bastard, but $16 a pound for flour and water is a bit excessive. I ended up buying the damn things anyway with a commitment to learn how to make them from scratch. And that’s where we are today.
Before I get into things there are a few things I want to mention about making cavatelli from scratch. First and foremost, it is labor intensive and time consuming work, so if you are bothered by that you should probably stop reading now and start saving so you can buy fresh cavatelli. Second, I looked everywhere online for a step by step guide on how to actually make the cavatelli, but most were pretty poor and graphically challenged. This how-to is going to have a lot of pictures, but it is in order to help you to see how to exactly make these right. Finally, make this a family event and include your kids. Its processes like making cavatelli that are slowing becoming memories of the past.
Cavatelli Recipe
16 oz. Ricotta Cheese
2 Eggs
1 Pinch of Salt
3 Cups (1 pound) All Purpose Flour
1.Pour 2 1/2 cups of the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
2. Drop the 2 eggs and the ricotta cheese into the well.
3. Using a circular motion, slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs and cheese.
4. Once all of the flour has been combined with the eggs and cheese, knead the dough together until a soft, but not sticky dough is formed. It can depend on the day, but if the dough still remains sticky add more flour.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest for at least a half an hour.
How to Make Cavatelli
1. Take your ball of dough and divide it into quarters.
2. Working with one quarter at a time, lay the dough out on a lightly floured surface and divide it into quarters again.
3. Take a piece of the divided dough (now and 1/8 of the original amount) and roll it into a long tube 1/4 inch in diameter. Although this picture shows me rolling the dough on the board, I actually found that it was a lot easier to work into a tube while holding it in the air and spinning it back and forth between my palms.
4. Divide the tube into pieces 1 inch long with either a pastry cutter or a knife.
5. Now this is the fun part. Using the edge of a butter knife or pastry cutter, with the device at a 45 degree angle, press on each piece of dough and pull across the length of it. You find that the motion causes the dough to curl up the edge of the impliment. This process is definately easier to understand with the pictures below. If you don’t get it at first, don’t be discouraged. Just keep working with it using different amounts of pressure on the dough and eventually you’ll get into the grove.
6. When you are done with each cavatelli, have a lightly floured pan near by so you can toss them in and move on to the next.
Storing Your Cavatelli
You have two options when storing your cavatelli refrigerator or freezer. If you plan on storing your cavatelli in the fridge, you want to make sure you let them dry a bit on the counter, at least an hour. Once you’re sure they won’t stick together any longer, pack them into a Ziploc bag and stick them in the fridge. Make sure you use them within a week or two.
The best option for storing your cavatelli is by far the freezer. Once you are done with your cavatelli making, place your pan into the freezer for a half an hour. That should be long enough to allow the cavatelli to tighten up a bit and they should no longer stick together. Place the chilled cavatelli in a Ziploc freezer bag and store them in your freezer for up to a year.
Cooking Your Cavatelli
If you are like us you won’t be able to wait to try your cavatelli, so you’ll be cooking them fresh. They should only take a few minutes to cook in a pot of salted water on a rapid boil. You’ll know when they are done because they will float. Always make sure to taste one before you take it off the heat though.
Frozen cavatelli will take just a bit longer to cook, maybe 5 – 7 minutes, but again, you’ll know when they are done because they will float to the top.
Further Reading:
For those of you that enjoyed this post, 101 Cookbooks has a nice how to on making gnocchi like an Italian grandmother.
Some other posts you might enjoy:
June 25th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I love Cavatelli and never made them. They have always been my favorite when I was growing up. I make Gnocchi all the time. Next time I will have to try making the cavatelli.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:02 am
These look so good. I just read the 101 Cookbooks post on gnocchi and thought I’d check you out too. I’ve been wanting to make pasta since I took a class a while back, but I haven’t gotten around to procuring the machine. But here, I don’t need the machine; great!
June 26th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Oh, and — all of the lovely photos are wonderfully helpful.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:50 am
These are a family tradition for Christmas day at our house. We love them. A few years ago my father (82) and I made them from scratch. You are absolutely right about labor intensive, but oh how it’s worth it.
We were buying them dried from a place in San Leandro California. Not anymore
September 13th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Oh and I forgot to mention, my dad taught us to use two fingers to roll, or as he calls it, dig the cavatelli.
March 9th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Best recipe with great “how to” pictures. I made these and they were delicioso. I used to roll with my fingers but using the patry cutter was much easier. These are my daughter’s favorite and she’s coming for dinner today. Thanks for making it a lot easier to do and now……..mangia, mangia!!
May 1st, 2008 at 5:18 am
Thanks for including pictures with the recipe. I didn’t really understand how to form the noodles by reading just the recipes. My grandson’s birthday is Sat. and I’m elected to make a hotdish for about 40 people-So I better get started making my cavateli’s. Thanks again. I’m so excited to make these.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Thanks. I had been searching for a cavatelli recipe made with ricotta. the semolina cavatelli are great, but these are perfection. Reminds of the days my grandmother called me Nunzi.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I’m going to try it. My grandmother used to make the dough when I was a kid and I was in charge of rolling them for the final step.
August 17th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
A recipe and the step-by-step photos – nice work! I am this for a hyperlink on my blog entry on the Feast of the Assumption in Cleveland’s Little Italy. Thanks!
August 30th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Cavatelli has been my favorite pasta since I was young in New York. Can’t find any here in Virginia. I have paid more than $40.00 to have it shipped from up north. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe. Will never buy Cavatelli again!!!! And, you are right…it is fun to make it into a family project.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:55 am
You are the man. Cavetelli was my favorite pasta growing up as a child in the NY, NJ area. I now live in a region of the country were they are not available. The only thing we can get are the dryed box type (which are no comparison). Yesterday I made your recipe and they were great. Your instructions and pictures made the process painless. They did take a while to make but it was well worth it and by the end I really had the knack. I think next time it will go much faster. I’ve been craving these for soooo long – thanks again!
November 8th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Cant wait to try this. Born and raised in NJ this was always our favorite. Moved to NC 13 yrs ago. no such thing. My mom used to bring us some when she would visit and my 10 year old now thinks they are called New jersey Noodles. Now she lives in FL my supply line has dried up. I think it is time to start a new family tradition. Thanks so much
November 27th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I live in CA where you just cannot find cavatelli. This recipe has me so excited as I am going to make it with my son this weekend. Thanks!
January 12th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I am so glad I located this web site. I am Irish and my mother in law Italian often made them. She passed and my family loves them so much. They are better than store bought or frozen.
Thanks
January 25th, 2009 at 11:20 am
thank you for posting th is recipe although i have been making them for years always nice to see how someone else does it your recipe is almost exact the only difference is we roll them on the inside of a fine grater to give them a design my mother in lw did this for years and learned from her
January 25th, 2009 at 11:20 am
thank you for posting th is recipe although i have been making them for years always nice to see how someone else does it your recipe is almost exact the only difference is we roll them on the inside of a fine grater to give them a design my mother in lw did this for years and learned from her
February 9th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I am happy to find this recipe. I plan on using Semolina instead of all purpose flour though. Mama-in-law always made them and I did not get her recipe before she died. I have a machine for them and plan on doing them today. If you do not think the semolina will work please let me know asap. In fact I have waited this long, guess I can wait a little longer and hopefully you will respond within the next week. THEN I will make them.
Thanks so much.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:04 am
thanks 4 clear,easy 2 unnerstan directions and 1 of the best websites. hope you can hang in there and go the distance.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Hello all, who said that real Italian cavatielli are made with ricotta?? that is an American invention , add-on or whatever. I lived in southern Italy for more than 20 years- no one adds this to their recipe, I will be very happy to show you all how to make them- it is labor intensive and time consuming , but you “dig” the furrows in the pasta with 4-5 fingers at a time. see ” dig” =Cavare= cavatielli.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Question: How many people does this recipe serve? I’m gonna make this for Easter. I’m feeding four adults and two kids. This going to be enough?
April 8th, 2009 at 8:15 am
hmm… my grandmother makes what she calls cavatelli but she makes it with potato like the gnocchi… but it LOOKS more like these pictures than the gnocchi pictures… and I have “heard” of riccota gnocchi, so are there potato cavatelli? or is my grandmother using the wrong word?? my mother told me my grandmother calls it cavatelli because the way its rolled means something about thumbprint? and she uses her thumb to make the roll….
April 13th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Made this for Easter. IT ROCKED. Gathered family around the kitchen table to help roll them out. Very fun, somewhat time consuming, very worth it. (Oh, and I doubled the recipe and had loads of leftovers.) I served it with a garlic-almond sauce (see this month’s Gourmet mag) that my dad declared was one of the best he’d ever had. Thanks, EatingCleveland.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! They have never heard of cavatelli here in the south, but being from the Mayfield area I can never get it out of my mind or heart. The dried pasta can never compare to Longo’s or Manga Manga’s Now I can make my own. Now if I can get these people to use fresh mozzeralla in their salad instead of cheddar. Oye!
July 16th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I make them – with or without ricotta and whole wheat flour vs white – still great. Plus – not to labor intensive when you have a “machine” to do the rolling. I bought a hand crank machine
years ago – grandma taught me the two finger version – but machine is so much faster! I’m sure you can find it on line.
Taking it down “south” next week to make and freeze for my daughter!
July 19th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I found this recipe a couple of months ago…madonna mia they were excellent! I had 4 kids helping and they were able to roll the cavatelli easily thanks to the photos. Very easy to follow, we all loved the results. I’m making it again tonight with some fresh tomato sauce from juicy garden tomatoes. Even with canned tomatoes this was an extra special meal with a loaf of homemade or fresh baked bread. Ti Voglio Bene!!!
July 24th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Okay, so I used to make these all of the time by hand. Very labor intensive indeed but fun at the same time. I make it a family event and my kids and husband love it. BUT I happened to stumble upon a video on Youtube.com called “Grandma making homemade cavatelli” and saw the cavatelli “crank” machine in action. Didn’t take me long to get one of these immediately on Ebay. Let me tell you – I love it!!!! I make these – bags at a time – and freeze them while giving a bag to each of my sisters for their families and they love me for it. My mom tells me that her mother NEVER used ricotta when she made these back in the day so today I am going to try the recipe without ricotta. I love the “eldante” texture and hope the plain version does it just right!!!! Thanks for the post and pics – so nice to know there are still people out there who take it back to the “old school” way…God I love this!
July 24th, 2009 at 6:18 am
Oops…I made a mistake on the title. If you want to see the video on Youtube.com that shows the crank machine in action, it’s called “Nonna making cavatelli.” I thanked the person who posted it
August 17th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
This is great !!
I’m from Brooklyn and live in San Francisco.
Needless to say, we don’t have stores here that make Cavatelli.
(I bring them home from NY)…
However now I can make them thanks to this wonderful site…..the
photos are terrific. Mille Grazie !!!!!!!!
September 25th, 2009 at 9:08 am
This is awesome! My mom and I have made these for years, only using the two fingers method to “roll them” ! This is a great website, I’m so glad others are able to learn how to make Cavatelli! It has been a Christmas / Easter tradition for my family for years, and we love them!
October 8th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Is that a Cleveland Browns sweatshirt I see in the picture?!! Thanks for the recipe. I am going to try it this weekend! Go Browns!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
(now and 1/8 of the original amount) – shouldn’t that be 1/16th? Yeah I know. Nit-picking.
I was surprised by the inclusion of the ricotta. Possibly why the shop-bought ones were a little more expensive?
November 1st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
why do I have so much trouble putting the rope thru the machine It sticks and all jumbles up together. is my dough too soft?
Louise Bova
November 9th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Hi , I have a question , can I use semolina flour instead of bleached , or can I use 1/2 bleached an 1/2 semolina ? thank you Joe
November 9th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Substituting some semolina should work fine, I wouldn’t do 100%, but 50% should be fine.
December 5th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Having left the CT/NYC area to move to warmer climes several years ago, I missed my cavatelli (or as Mom would call it, “gavadeel”); any visit back up to NYC, this is always the first dish my sister makes me. Last trip up, I bought 10 lbs from a shop in Brooklyn and brought them home. Now…. “gavadeel” any time I want it. Thanks, friend… you made this southern transplant one happy Italiano. Can’t wait for Christmas Eve this year.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Do yourself a favor and purchase a cavatelli machine for forming the gavs.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Since my 83 year old Nonna passed away 3 years ago I have not found a cavatelli recipe. Yours is sooooo detailed Thank You for that. The only place where I had it exactly and I mean exactly like hers was when I visited a restaurant in Compobasso, Italy where she was born. I will try yours but I don’t know if she used Ricotta or not worth the experiment.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Canada
December 28th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I’m working on Mark Vetri’s Ricotta Cavatelli with Lamb Ragu (if it tastes half as good as it smell, we’re going to be in luck) and your detailed instructions and terrific photos helped immeasurably. Thanks soooo much. — POD
January 16th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Yes indeedy my childhood favorite was cavatelli too. i made them with my mom but switched to gnocchi due to the ease of it all. now back to cavatelli and i’m teaching my two married daughters how to make them today. thanks for the reminder. i follow the same steps as your site but i roll them with my fingers. just my family’s tradition.
thanks, Dorothy D’Amico Conroy
January 20th, 2010 at 9:30 am
I have always made cavetelli with a machine. I am from Ohio, I’m sure you’ve heard of Aleschi’s. That’s where I would buy the frozen ones when we visited home. Now in North Carolina its like a hunt for gold and then paying the price. This looks like fun and I’m on a mission to make pounds of it and introduce it to my Southern friends, they’ll get hooked. Thanks for making my favorite “simply” by hand.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I’m from upstate NY and could not find cavatelli our here in Denver so decided to try my hand at making them. Your recipe and instructions were perfect. Even my Italian friends told me to be sure to use the ricotta in the dough. The dough was smooth and easy to work with. It did not take long to get the hang of rolling them as you showed. Can’t thank you enough for posting it. Now I can have them any time I want them. Made them with the broccoli and mushrooms. To die for. Grazia!
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:06 pm
i cant wait to try this recipe. when i was 13 i washed dishes in an italian restaurant outside of cleveland and would sometime help in making the cavatelli. they would store them on baking sheets with damp towels on top inthe walk-in. in high school i worked at an italian party center and cavatelli were a wedding standard. leftovers were always fed to the workers. i left cleveland 27 yrs ago for new mexico and i only get to eat them when i visit cleveland. thanks again for the recipe!
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Just a note to let you know this was a great success. I don’t know if my Grandmother used ricotta, but I have had it without and this is fantastic. It is much moister and tender. I messed around with the hand method and made a pound, it was delicious but I dug out my cavatelli maker so I could produce mass quantities. The difference is you need more flour for the machine and they are a bit firmer. I enjoyed both versions, one because it tasted better, the other because I could make more faster!!! I’m in heaven either way, thanks.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
My first post didn’t take so I’ll try again. Definitely use a machine. I bought mine decades ago at DeMarco’s down by 5 points. There is another company that sells this machine now and can be found by Googling cavatelli makers.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Thanks for posting this recipe with the pictures. I made these last night, and I was able to get the shaping method correct because of the photos you posted. They taste great too. Thank you!
March 12th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
patty ricca said you’re alright…you can stay