When my grandma Nina covered her kitchen table with the big white cloth, I knew something special was going to happen. And it usually meant she was making gnocchi from scratch. To say I learned how to roll gnocchi from a master is no exaggeration. That’s why when a friend asked if I wanted to learn how to make ricotta cavatelli, I was in.
And now I’m sharing all I’ve learned with you.
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What is cavatelli?
It’s a homemade pasta shape that’s a cross between a gnocchi and a shell. Some even compare it to a small hot dog bun. Cavatelli is usually made with durum wheat flour, water and salt.
What ricotta does for cavatelli
Adding ricotta to the cavatelli dough brings a creamy delicate texture, adds a little moisture and makes a dough that is super easy to work with.
Ricotta tip
Drain the ricotta before adding to the dough so as to not make the dough too wet.
Ingredient roll call
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Just like homemade pasta, the ingredient list for cavatelli is super simple so buy the best quality that works within your budget. Here’s what you’ll need:
Best sauces for cavatelli pasta
Use ricotta cavatelli in place of dumplings in my chicken dumpling soup recipe.
Toss with some homemade pesto sauce and serve chilled or at room temperature for a summer salad idea.
A smattering of rich butter tomato sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese makes the best bowl of comfort for TV watching.
How to make ricotta cavatelli
Follow along as I share a few different ways to make ricotta cavatelli. You can use a cavatelli maker (so fun btw!) or roll it by hand and shape it 3 different ways.
Trust me…it’s easier than I’m making it sound.
Mix the cavatelli dough
- To a medium sized bowl, add the ricotta, flour, eggs and salt (image 1). Mix thoroughly until the dough comes together (2)
- Dump the contents onto a wooden board (3) and bring together with a pastry scraper until you have a nice ball. (4)
Roll the cavatelli
Similar to gnocchi you can use a wooden board with ridges to make cavatelli but that isn’t as authentic. These are the 2 best ways I have found to roll and shape ricotta cavatelli:
By hand.
- Cut off a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll it into a long snake about 1/4″ diameter.
- Use a butter knife to cut the dough into approximately 1 1/2″ pieces.
- Use your pinky finger to make a well down a cut piece of dough. Remove your finger and bend the sides together to make a small hot dog bun or boat.
- Or use a gnocchi ridged paddle to run the dough down the length of the board as you press and roll the dough.
- Another method: Place two fingers on one piece of dough and keeping both fingers together, press down and pull the dough towards you rolling it into a small “tube”.
- Lay a clean dish towel on a sheet pan and place finished cavatelli on top sprinkling with a little flour.
- Repeat with all the dough. Make sure to not crowd the sheet pan.
By machine. Cavatelli makers are really economical and help speed the process along.
- Measure a piece of dough to about 5″ long. Make the width a little narrower than the rollers on your machine so the dough doesn’t stick when pulled through.
- Attach the machine to the edge of a countertop. Make sure the counter is clean or place a clean cloth in front of the machine to catch the cavatelli as it falls.
- Cut off a piece of dough about the size of a ping pong ball. Flatten it and square off the edges a bit.
- Place the short end of a narrow section of dough into the machine. Turn the handle feeding the dough into the machine as it’s simultaneously cut into cavatelli.
Cook
- After you roll and shape the cavatelli, place them on a floured dish towel set in a baking sheet. This will make them easy to transfer.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Generously salt the water and gently drop the cavatelli into the water.
- Stir the cavatelli in the water to avoid them sticking to one another and make sure the water is boiling around the pasta.
- Cook the pasta for 3-4 minutes. It should be slightly firm and tender.
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Handmade Ricotta Cavatelli
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Equipment
- cavatelli maker optional but very helpful!
Ingredients
- 3 cups 00 flour, or all purpose works too
- salt
- 1 lb whole milk ricotta
- 2 eggs
Instructions
To make the cavatelli
- Lay a large dish towel on a sheet pan.
- Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and make a well in the center. Add the ricotta and eggs and use a fork to beat the eggs, mixing the flour and ricotta into the dough.Note: You can also use a stand mixer to mix the dough together on low.1 lb whole milk ricotta, salt, 3 cups 00 flour, 2 eggs
- Mix the dough in the bowl until it comes together and then turn it out onto a wooden board. Knead the dough until it comes together and you have a ball. You just don't want any major lumps of flour. Add a little sprinkle of flour if the dough is sticking to the board.Cover with a damp cloth and let the dough rest on the board for about 30 minutes.
To roll cavatelli by hand:
- Cut the dough into quarters. Work with one piece at a time and cover the others with a bowl turned upside down or with a tea towel.
- Roll the dough into a long rope about ¼-½” thick. Cut the length of the dough into 1 ½ pieces.
- OPTION #1 Grandma's methodUse your index and middle fingers together and place their fingers on the long side of a piece of dough. Lightly press down and pull your fingers towards you flipping the piece of dough over itself making a cavatelli.
- OPTION #2 Hot dog bun methodYou can also shape the cavatelli around your pinky finger by pressing your pinky finger into a cut piece of dough and allowing the dough to cup around the sides. Slightly bring the sides together.
- OPTION #3 Ridged paddleRoll the piece of dough down a gnocchi board to get the grooves for sauce to stick to.
To roll by cavatelli maker
- Attach a cavatelli maker to the edge of a counter or kitchen table and place a large dish towel sprinkled with flour in front.Measure a ping pong ball sized piece of dough into approximately 5" long and as wide as you need to be a little narrower than your rollers on the machine.Crank the handle with one hand as you feed the dough until it catches through the cavatelli maker. Continue turning the handle as the cavatelli pops out below
- Place the uncooked shaped cavatelli on the tea towel and sprinkle over some flour. Periodically give the sheet pan a shake so the pasta doesn’t stick to each other.
To cook cavatelli:
- Carefully add floured cavatelli to a colander and gently shake to remove any excess flour so your pasta ends up firm and not cooking in gummy water.
- Bring a large pot of water to a gentle rolling boil. Season with kosher salt and carefully add the now unfloured cavatelli.
- Gently stir the pasta with a large spoon. Cook the pasta for about 3 -4 minutes and taste. It should be firm yet tender.
- Remove the cavatelli with a slotted spoon to a large bowl and set aside while the sauce is simmering. Pull out about 1 cup of pasta water.Toss with your favorite sauce. p.s. cavatelli is so good buttery tomato sauce or homemade pesto!
If I make the cavatelli in the afternoon should I put them in the refrigerator or leave them on the counter to dry?
Because of the ricotta, I wouldn’t leave it on the counter longer than an hour or so. After that, refrigerate and you’ll be fine for that day. Beyond a day, I’d freeze them in a single layer on a sheet pan before transferring to a freezer safe bag or container. Hope that helps!
My Italian mother in law tought me how to make this. Her method is interesting and wondered what you think.
Her dough: white flour, eggs and water. After kneading until pliable but not sticky, Formed a large round mound. We used a large wooden dowel and rolled the dough flat by rolling and wrapping the dough around the dowel into a large thin circle. (Like a pizza) (this required rolling, unrolling and re-rolling the dough around the dowel.) Sliced the circle into long 3/4 ” strips. Cut those strips into 1/2″ rectangles. (approx sizes) Placed the rectangles on a floured terry towel. Using two fingers at the top, press and rolled towards you. They curled. sprinkle with flour to avoid drying. We would would carry the towel full of the cavatelli to the pot of boiling water in the towel and dump them in. LOL that was messy. I will try your method, if I ever make them again. (I’m too old now) Every recipe I have read is similar to your method forming them. I wonder why her method was so different. (I think her mother tought her and this must have been in the early 20’s or 30’s?) Maybe that’s why? Mother in law was born in the US and maybe her mother from Italy improvised using white flour eggs and water? Who knows. Anyway, that’s my story. Hope you found this story amusing.
Sharon I love your story so much! Thank you for sharing 😊 My grandma Nina used to do something similar when she made homemade gnocchi. It was always on the kitchen table with a huge flour sack towel and she’d hand roll the dough with two fingers similar to what you are describing but in a smaller form. I linked it above so you can see what I mean. You MIL sounds like my grandma in that she improvised because that is what worked and I can still taste her gnocchi to this day. These taste memories stay with us, don’t they?♥️
This recipe is perfect. I made it with my cavatelli maker. I boiled and ate some the same day, and also froze some. The texture and flavor are delicious.
Thank you so much, Lisa! This made my day…we recently ate a batch I had frozen a couple of months ago and it was so good! Now after reading your comment I want to make it again…and isn’t the cavatelli maker a blast? Love it!
I made the dough exactly as written, however it kept clumping in my cavatelli machine. Big mess. I wound up doing by hand. Any suggestions, beside flouring the machine and rolled dough that it wont stick?
Hi JoAnn! When my team and I developed the recipe, we kept flouring the machine with every piece of dough and made sure the dough was floured as well. The machine we used is pretty rustic and a hand crank version. If your machine is similar, I would suggest using our technique above and possibly adding a little more flour to the dough to eliminate any tackiness. Hope that helps!
Thank you for your response! I’ll give it another try.
Btw, even tho I did it by hand, they came out delicious!!
Sure thing! Pasta can be so temperamental and different from one day to the next. The other thing I wanted to mention and forgot was that we found cranking “slower” than faster helped. I reached out to one of my teammates and she reminded me of that. Going to go add it to the tips in the recipe card. Thank you, JoAnn, for trying my cavatelli and let me know how it goes when you try them again! So glad you liked them and if you didn’t, give the broccoli garlic sauce a try…as soon as you messaged, I had a craving for it 😊. Have a great day!