capunti
peapod shape
PREPARING SEMOLA & WATER DOUGH
Check out my full recipe and process tips for preparing this egg-less pasta dough. Give yourself ~45 minutes to prep, knead & rest the dough.
SHAPING TOOLS 🧰
Just your hands! You'll need a few tools for preparing the dough but for creating the shape, it's all done by hand.
SHAPING PROCESS 📓
- Cut your dough in quarters or eighths.
Take the dough out and cut into 4 pieces. In order to keep the dough from drying out, put the rest back in the ziploc or plastic wrap until you are ready to move to the next quarter. I would suggest starting with a small piece of dough until you get the hang of it.
- Create a rope.
Using the palms of your hands, roll out a long thin tube of dough about .25" thickness. It doesn't matter how long the rope gets, what matters is that the diameter is consistent throughout.
- Cut the rope into segments.
Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the rope into 3" pieces.
- Create a taper.
Using one hand, press down on a segment and taper the edges of the dough.
- Form the peapod.
Dig three fingers into the center of the piece, press down, and drag slightly. The pasta should resemble a little peapod.
CREAMY BUTTERNUT SAUCE 🍽️
Serves 4 people, 20 min prep, 40 min cooking
Ingredients
1 butternut squash, spiced & roasted
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 onion caramelized for >30 min
1 handful toasted pine nuts
1 cup of pasta water (add as needed)
A healthy drizzle of olive oil
Preparation
- Preheat your oven. Set to 450 degrees.
- Prepare the butternut. Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds, and drizzle with olive oil & coat with your favorite spices. Salt & Pepper is more than enough, but I love to use a dash of each of the following: Salt, Cayenne, Garlic Powder, Nutmeg, Cinnamon & Fennel.
Note: for faster cooking, cut the squash into small cubes.
- Roast. Cook until you can easily run your fork through the squash with no resistance, should take ~40 minutes.
- Caramelize an onion. While the squash is cooking, cut a yellow onion into strips and add to a pan on low heat with olive oil. This will take ~30 minutes to brown properly.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. While the onion and the squash are both cooking, use this downtime to get a large pot of water boiling with the cover on. Wait until the water is almost boiling before adding salt (to prevent a mess from boiling over). You're going to want the water to be very salty if you use my dough recipe with no salt added.
- Cook the capunti. Add the capunti to the boiling water and cook for 7-10 minutes. If you bite into the Capunti and see that there is a yellow center, the semola flour hasn't cooked off just yet. Reserve a cup of the pasta water.
- Combine all ingredients in one pot. Add the onions, squash, basil, pine nuts, a healthy drizzle of olive oil and the pasta to one large pot. Mix everything together gently. If the mixture looks dry, add a little pasta water. If the mixture is too wet, add a bit of pecorino or parmesan cheese.
- Serve & Enjoy. If you made it this far, enjoy the pasta with a heavy layer of pecorino or parmesan cheese on top.