Sardinian cuisine: Malloreddus alla campidanese

DIFFICULTY	TIME	SERVES	COST
Easy	25 min	4 Serves	Easy

Rating

Malloreddus, known as “gnocchetti sardi”, means “little gnocchi”. The word “malloreddus” comes from the term malloru, which means “bull”. The name originates from the shape of the pasta, which reminds the figure of these animals.

Malloreddus have always been the most prepared traditional dish in Sardinia. Since ancient times, housewives have prepared this type of pasta, especially on important occasions. They are the start of several festivals, village fairs, weddings or different celebrations spent with family and friends.

These “special gnocchi” are made from durum wheat pasta, they are more or less 2 cm long and they are easily recognizable by their stripes. Thanks to them and their internal cavity, they manage to “capture” more sauce, which makes them even tastier.

Malloreddus alla campidanese is the classic dish of Sardinian cuisine. Campidanese sauce is a ragout made by cutting Sardinian sausage into small pieces, which are fried in oil with chopped onion and boiled with tomato sauce for about an hour. Ten minutes before the end of cooking a few strands of saffron are added.

If you want to bring the taste of Sardinia into your kitchen with local ingredients follow this easy recipe, with all products from Sardinian Km0 producers.

Let’s find out how to prepare this dish

Ingredients	Quantity
Malloreddus tricolore piccoletti dried Araj Pasta	360g
Sa Bagna Campidanese	1 jar (300g)
Evo semidana extra virgen olive oil	60 ml
Semi-aged Sardinian Pecorino cheese	50g approximately
Salt	To taste (36g approximately)

Preparation method

To cook the dried pasta, you will need one liter of water for every 100 g. Heat the water and add the salt when the water is boiling, never before, wait half a minute, to let the water return to boil, and then put the pasta in. The pasta cooking time is approximately 12 minutes (always check the package instructions).

Meanwhile, in a pan heat the sauce, Sa Bagna Campidanese, with a bit of olive oil. When is ready, add a ladle of pasta cooking water and then add the drained pasta to the sauce, cook over low heat for 2 minutes. Mix the Malloreddus with the sauce and some of the grated pecorino cheese. If the sauce seems too dry, add some extra pasta cooking water and stir well. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt if it´s needed.

Now serve on warm plates, remember to add some grated Sardo pecorino cheese at the top of the gnocchi. It will give an extra cheese taste.

Your malloreddus alla campidanese pasta is ready now!