This popular pasta shape typical of Salento and usually served with turnip greens or rabbit ragout sauce may have originated in France where, during the Middle Ages, wheat cultivation was common. The flattened shape given to this type of pasta allowed it to dry fast and to be stored for times of famine. It was the Anjou, rulers of the area between Basilicata and Apulia in the 12th century, who introduced orecchiette, bringing them by sea from France.

Another theory tells us orecchiette were created in Sannicandro di Bari, where Catholic inhabitants, during Swabian domination in the 12th and 13th centuries, maintained alive the Jewish tradition of preparing “Haman’s Ears” for Purim. Hence the name of orecchiette, or little ears.