Orecchiette

oh-rek-KYET-teh

Small domed disc, rough on the outside, dragged over the board with a knife.

Name. Little ears.

How to cook orecchiette: 9 to 12 minutes, with a timer

What it is

Orecchiette are the pasta of Puglia and Bari in particular: small discs of semolina-and-water dough dragged across the board with a knife and turned inside out over the thumb, so each one is a rough cup with a thin rim and a thicker centre. Women still make them on the street in Bari Vecchia.

The dish is orecchiette con le cime di rapa, with turnip greens, garlic, anchovy, and chili, cooked in the same pot as the pasta. Ragu and a sausage sauce are the Sunday versions.

How to cook orecchiette

9 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 9 minutes, fully cooked at 12.

Custom, minutes

9:00

Start when the water returns to the boil.

Water and salt

People

Pasta, dry: 400 g
Water: 4 L
Salt: 40 g

100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.

The steps

Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
Add the orecchiette. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
Bite a piece at 8 minutes. A hairline of white at the centre is al dente.
Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.

Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.

How it holds sauce

A rough cup with a thick centre and a thin rim. The cup holds greens, sausage crumbs, and chunky vegetables; the rough outside grips oil and cheese. It wants sauces with pieces, never a smooth coating.

Pairs with: Cime di rapa · Sausage ragu · Broccoli and anchovy · Meat ragu · Pomodoro · Ricotta

Classic plates: Orecchiette con le cime di rapa, Orecchiette al ragu di braciole, Orecchiette con salsiccia e broccoli, Orecchiette al pomodoro e cacioricotta.

By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets

5 brands, 6 product pages. Cook times run from 10 to 14 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule.

Brand	Product	No.	Cook	Wall	Notes
De Cecco	Orecchiette no. 91	91	11 min, al dente 9
Rummo	Orecchietteartisan line	87	12 min	1.45 mm
Garofalo	Orecchiette	5	13 min		Gragnano PGI · 454 g box
Barilla	Orecchietteal bronzo		14 min, al dente 12
La Molisana	Orecchiette Pugliesi	30	11 min
La Molisana	Orecchiette Pugliesi Integraliwhole wheat	30	10 min

Nutrition

Per 100 g of dry semolina pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.

Per 100 g	Energy	Protein	Carbohydrate	Fibre	Fat	Sodium	Iron
Dry	371 kcal	13.0 g	74.7 g	3.2 g	1.5 g	6 mg	3.3 mg
Cooked	158 kcal	5.8 g	30.9 g	1.8 g	0.9 g	1 mg	1.3 mg

One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 235 g cooked, 371 kcal and 13 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.3 times its weight in the pot.

Who makes orecchiette

300 orecchiette products are catalogued, most of them sold in Italy, France, United States. Of those, 32 are organic, 25 are made in Italy.

Brands: Barilla (7), Maffei (7), De Cecco (6), Eurospin (6), Divella (5), Garofalo (4), Tarall Oro (4), Abatianni (3), Alb Gold (3), Casa Milo (3).

No orecchiette? Use these

Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.

Conchiglie

Short shapes · All of Italy

A dried cup of similar size

Cavatelli

Hand-formed · Puglia

The other Puglian hand shape, rolled instead of pressed

Strascinati

Hand-formed · Basilicata

The larger dragged version

Side by side

Easy to confuse with

Cavatelli

Hand-formed · Puglia

small dumpling with a hollow, rolled under two fingers

Strascinati

Hand-formed · Basilicata

disc of dough dragged across the board with the fingers, larger and flatter than orecchiette

Conchiglie

Short shapes · All of Italy

cupped shell with ridges on the outside

Malloreddus

Hand-formed · Sardinia

small ridged shell, rolled over a basket or a ridged board, often saffron-yellow

Other names

Molise and Basilicata), Taranto), cagghiubbi/fenescecchie (Bari), chancierelle/pochiacche (small/big versions, chiancarelle, cicatelli (Apulia), orecchie di prete, orecchie di prete (Abruzzo and Basilicata), recchie di prevete (Foggia), recchietedde, recchietele (Campania, recchini (Rome), stacchiodde (Lecce), strascinate, strascinati.

Bronze die versus Teflon: why the surface of dried pasta matters
What a bronze die does to the surface of pasta, why a rough shape holds sauce better, and how to tell a bronze-cut box from a Teflon one on the shelf.

Sources

Orecchiette no. 91, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Orecchiette (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Orecchiette, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Orecchiette (al bronzo), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Orecchiette Pugliesi, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Orecchiette Pugliesi Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Cook time: De Cecco no. 91: 12 min; fresh 5 to 7 min.
Photograph: Orecchiette2.jpg, Popo le Chien, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
Orecchiette, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Q19969, Wikidata
Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.