Orecchiette nelle 'nchiosce is the great festival of this Apulian 'queen' who returned for its seventh edition on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th August in Grottaglie (TA). Eight leading chefs, homegrown in Grottaglie will cook their creative recipes - like this one by Maria Carmela D'Acunto.
Vegan orecchiette with capers, olive pesto, yellow tomato and taralli powder
Ingredients for four people
1 lb fresh orecchiette; 4 oz salted capers; 2 oz green olives; 1 oz pine nuts; 10 yellow tomatoes; 5 taralli; garlic; evo oil; salt and pepper; mint; basil.
Method
Desalinate the capers with plenty of water, changing it several times and squeeze them. Cut the yellow tomatoes into segments. Reduce the taralli to powder. Toast the pine nuts. Put capers, pitted olives, pine nuts, garlic, mint, basil in a jug, and using an immersion mix blend everything with evo oil without heating the ingredients until a creamy and homogeneous mixture is obtained. Adjust with salt and pepper and leave to rest. Heat up a pot of water to cook the pasta, once it’s boiling and salted lower in the pasta.
Put half the pesto in a pan over low heat and add the pasta cooked al dente, add more pesto with a spoonful of cooking water and mix everything together. Add the yellow tomatoes and plate up. Add the taralli powder and a drizzle of oil and serve.