Their origin is a mystery, in fact there are no documents that certify their birth. Since there is no official documentation certifying its origin, the hypotheses concerning the invention of orecchiette are mostly based on local stories, anecdotes and traditions that have been handed down over time.

The most remote dates back to ancient Rome, because Varro speaks of “lixulae”, a type of round-shaped pasta with a concave center, made with flour, water and cheese. Even the Counts of Anjou of Provence would seem to love an original medieval French recipe, which consisted of a fresh pasta called crosets, prepared with durum wheat flour and water and with a similar shape of discs hollowed in the center but thicker, larger and less finished.

This form was conceived because it is easy to dry and to preserve during long periods of famine, but hypothetically it has as its corresponding Italian dish the so-called corzetti romagnoli, or better still the crusets of the Ligurian Apennines. The name “orecchiette” instead, as well as the method of preparation of this pasta, would be definitively established and perfected later, around 1200, in the lands of Puglia.

According to local tradition, among other things, the shape of the orecchiette would seem to draw inspiration from that of the roofs of the trulli.