Thumb pasta

Orecchiette (singular: orecchietta) is a kind of home-made pasta typical of Puglia or Apulia, a region of southern Italy. Its name comes from its shape, which reminds one of a small ear. In Italian orecchio means ear, and the suffix 'etto' means 'small'. Ashton loves this pasta and incidentally, it looks nothing like a small ear. Unless whoever named it was thinking of a field mouse, which for all I know could be the case. But I digress. To make orecchiette, you pinch off small fingerfuls of pasta dough, roll them between your thumb and forefinger into balls, and press each in the middle to form an indentation. This indentation is the perfect size for Ashton. He loves to "thumb" his pasta and put it in his mouth and I managed to get two of the perhaps 12 times he did it last night at dinner.

The best part is that he now tries to thumb other things into his mouth, like his watermelon, chicken nugget pieces or carrot slices. Now that you've seen the technique, he doesn't have much success as you can imagine. Luckily he has learned the importance of adding an "Ahhhhh!" at the end of a particularly satisfying drink of water. I am so proud.