Malloreddus alla Campidanese
Description
Malloreddus, also known as Sardinian gnocchetti, are one of the most well-known and beloved types of pasta in Sardinia.
Among the various recipes using Sardinian gnocchetti, malloreddus alla campidanese is typical of the Campidano area.
It is a wonderfully rich dish which pairs malloreddus with a cheese and sausage sauce. In our version the cheese used is Gran Campidano but, if you love intense flavours, you can stick with tradition and use pecorino instead.
Malloreddus alla campidanese is the perfect way to treat your family and guests to a tasty first course. Here’s how to cook it.
Ingredients
to recalculate the ingredient amounts
- Sardinian gnocchi 400 g
- Fresh sausage (possibly flavored with fennel) 300 g
- Grated Gran Campidano 100 g
- Chopped onion 50 g
- Tomato sauce 300 ml
- Extra virgin olive oil 30 ml
- Salt q.b.
Instructions
Tips
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1
To prepare malloreddus alla campidanese, the first thing to do is prepare the sauce for the gnocchetti: peel the onion and chop it finely, then brown it in a pan with 30ml of extra virgin olive oil.
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2
In the meantime, remove the skin of the sausage and add it to the browned onion, crumbling it with your hands. Let the sausage brown for around 15 minutes on a medium heat, stirring from time to time to prevent it burning.
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3
After 15 minutes, pour the tomato sauce into the same pan, season with salt, cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for one hour. Then, add some basil leaves as seasoning.
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4
When the sauce is almost ready, place a pot with salted water on the hob and, when the water is boiling, add the malloreddus.
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5
Once cooked, drain the malloreddus, put them in the pan with the sauce, mix and add a generous sprinkle of grated Gran Campidano. Your malloreddus alla campidanese is now ready!
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Variations
Malloreddus have a rolled shell shape, measuring approximately 2 cm in size, and thanks to their external striations and internal cavity, they collect all the sausage sauce well, with which they are usually seasoned.
The Campidanese malloreddus recipe often features tomato puree enriched with pieces of Sardinian sausage and a sprinkling of grated pecorino cheese on top, which gives the dish a savory, bold flavor.
This dish, like many other typical Sardinian dishes , has different variations based on the type of sauces they are accompanied with: for example, you can cook malloreddus with pecorino cheese, also called malloreddus alla sassarese, if you use a simple sauce, while, if you want to be more daring in the kitchen, you can try your hand at the recipe for malloreddus with bottarga .
Did You Know?
The term malloreddu is a diminutive of malloru, which means “bull” in the Campidanese dialect of southern Sardinia. Thus, malloreddu literally means “little calf.”
The rounded shape of this pasta was reminiscent of small calves in the imagination of the island’s agro-pastoral world.
The Arborea menus
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Come and discover the most traditional recipes of our homeland, Sardinia. We’ve prepared some simple menus for every day and some more elaborate ones for special occasions.
