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Making pasta by hand is one of my favorite things to do, especially shapes you can make with little or no special equipment. Malloreddus, a gnocchi-like pasta from Sardinia, is one of the best.
All you need to make malloreddus is a little gnocchi board, which costs $8. Or you can roll the dough off the tines of a fork. I use the board, which makes them a bit prettier and more uniform.
Also called gnocchetti sardi, malloreddus are made from durum semolina flour and water, with a little saffron tossed in to make the pasta yellow. You can skip the saffron if you want to.
Centuries ago, the malloreddus — which is believed to mean calf (baby cow) — were rolled off the edge of a straw basket to get the ridges, which will catch sauce. The little wooden gnocchi board is nicer.
The ragu is a simple tomato-and-pork pasta sauce, also with a little saffron in there. I used ground wild pig, but any ground meat will work. This is what makes it malloreddus alla campidanese, named after part of southern Sardinia.
What you get is just plain comfort food. Nothing challenging, everything satisfying. Tomato, olive oil. Pork, saffron, and pasta with a nice chew to it.
Other Sauces for Malloreddus
Some other excellent sauces for this pasta include:
- A rich venison ragu, or a duck sugo
- A hearty, dark mushroom ragu, or a lighter chanterelle sauce
- Another lighter sauce that works is a meatless pasta sauce that has a little fennel in it.
- Pesto is a great match, too. I’d suggest a parsley-walnut pesto, an arugula pesto, or a ramp pesto.
You can certainly buy malloreddus online, but they’re fun to make.
Making Malloreddus
A few pointers:
- Crush the saffron into warm water about 15 minutes before you add it to the flour.
- You want your dough stiff, but pliable. Be sure to knead it a solid 5 to 10 minutes, then let it rest inside a plastic bag to keep it from drying out.
- Cut the dough into a few chunks, then roll one chunk out like a long snake. You want it no thicker than your pinkie, and preferably thinner. Cut the snake into little pieces the size of a fingernail.
- Roll a piece of dough off the gnocchi board, or the upturned tines of a fork. Set each one on a tray dusted with semolina flour. Repeat until you’ve finished that snake, then roll another snake out, and so on.
Hot tip: Vacuum seal the dough and you need not rest it. It will hydrate instantly.
Malloreddus will keep in the fridge uncooked for a day or two, and they actually dry pretty well at room temperature. I’ve set them out on a tray for a week and they dried up nicely; they’ll be chewier when boiled after this.
You can also freeze malloreddus, laying them uncooked in one layer on a baking sheet in the freezer, then, once they are frozen solid, you can put them in a plastic freezer bag and they’ll keep, frozen, for several months before they get brittle.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.
Malloreddus alla Campidanese
Ingredients
PASTA
- 2 cups durum semolina, about 300 grams
- 3/4 cup warm water, about 150 grams
- A pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads
RAGU
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, broken up
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads
- 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
- 1 28-ounce can, whole peeled tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons torn-up basil (optional)
- grated pecorino cheese
Instructions
MALLOREDDUS
- Start with the pasta. Crumble the saffron in the warm water and let it bloom a few minutes. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over this. Pour in the water, making sure you get as many little saffron bits into the dough as possible.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let this sit on the counter for 1 hour. Or, if you vacuum seal your dough, you can proceed immediately.
- Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces. Keep the pieces you aren’t using under the plastic. Roll a piece into a snake about 1/2 inch thick, or a little less. Cut off bits of dough about the size of your thumbnail. Using your thumb, roll each bit off a gnocchi board or off the tines of a fork. Set each dumpling on a baking sheet dusted with more semolina. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
RAGU
- After you knead the dough and are letting it rest, you can get the ragu started. Put the sausage and olive oil in a large pan and set it over medium-high heat. Brown the sausage, breaking it up into bits as you go.
- Add the onion to the pan and cook the until it softens. Mix in the tomato paste, and, when it is incorporated, add the saffron, bay leaf, rosemary. Take each whole, peeled tomato and tear it up over the pan, letting all the juices fall into the pan. Do this with the whole can, then pour in the remaining contents of the can. Rinse the can with a little water and pour that in, too. Let this simmer uncovered while you make the pasta. Stir it occasionally.
- When the pasta is done, get a large pot of water boiling. Add enough salt to make the water taste salty. Boil the pasta until it floats, then for 1 minute more.
- To serve, put a little of the sauce in a big bowl and add all the pasta. Toss to combine. Serve with a little more sauce on top, garnished with grated cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Loved it, only 2nd time making gnocchi type paste, worked well.
No Italian pork sausage, but had venison garlic and bay to hand.
Will definitely repeat!
Your recipes are so good that it looks like I’ll be ordering a gnocchi board, very soon. Expect this recipe to be excellent.
Ha! I mis read this as “malodorous” pasta at first, and was intrigued! It sounds great, even if it doesn’t smell bad.
Allan: HAHAHAHA
I made homemade sausage for this out of wild boar, then with the gnocchi made by hand it became such a wonderfully memorable dish.
Gotcha! Thanks so much. I’ll let you know how I get on. The great thing is that semolina is longlife so I can make it any time; the bad news is that semolina is longlife so I don’t push myself to make it asap! Cheers again.
I’m a bit confused about saying that the dough needs to rest, while firmly wrapped – I get that bit. But then it says if you can vacuum seal you can start right away. Well surely I’d vacuum seal the dough then immediately re-open to move to next step? What’s the point / how does the process work, please?
Also, after describing the method to make the little pieces, the next step says that while the dough is resting, after kneading, you can start the ragu. Shouldn’t this be written in the other order, so: make dough, rest dough, start ragu; then return to dough, make the little pieces, cook immediately?
I’d be grateful if you would explain! Thanks.
Flash: The vacuum sealing trick is a hack: The process immediately hydrates the dough. Most people don’t do that, though, so I give an alternative. As for the order, hell, make the ragu 3 days beforehand if you want. It’s durable, and just gets better resting in the fridge.