Chef's Recipes

Malloreddus with pork sausage and radicchio

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for malloreddus with pork sausage and radicchio by Berta restaurant in Sydney.

By O Tama Carey, Andrew Cibej & Daniel Johnston
  • 1 hr preparation
  • 1 hr 45 mins cooking plus resting
  • Serves 8
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Malloreddus with pork sausage and radicchio
“Malloreddus, meaning ‘little bulls’, is a traditional curled pasta of Sardegna. It is traditionally served with sausage or a meat ragù from the leftovers of a spit roast,” says Johnston. “Ridged wooden boards are used to make it, though I‘ve seen people use the back of a fork. It takes a little while to get the shaping technique, but it’s well worth it for the result.”

Ingredients

  • 50 ml olive oil
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 2 rosemary sprigs, leaves finely chopped
  • 8 coarse pork sausages (about 500gm)
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 150 ml dry white wine
  • 1.2 kg canned whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
  • 250 gm cherry tomatoes (about 1 punnet)
  • 2 heads radicchio, outer green leaves discarded, inner leaves torn
  • ½ cup (firmly packed) flat-leaf parsley
  • 50 gm finely grated pecorino, plus extra, shaved, to serve
Pasta dough
  • 250 gm fine durum wheat semolina, such as Bellata Gold
  • 3 tsp fine sea salt (10gm)

Method

Main
  • 1
    Heat a large saucepan over low-medium heat, add oil, onion and rosemary and sauté until tender (8-10 minutes). Squeeze sausage meat from casing and add to pan, break into chunks with a wooden spoon, season to taste, add garlic and cook until aromatic and browned (2-3 minutes). Deglaze pan with wine and reduce liquid by half (2-3 minutes). Add canned tomatoes and cherry tomatoes and simmer over low heat until well reduced but still retaining some moisture (1-1½ hours).
  • 2
    For pasta dough, combine semolina and salt in a large bowl, mix in 120ml water with a wooden spoon, transfer to a work surface and knead until smooth and elastic (10 minutes). Wrap in a slightly damp clean tea towel and set aside to rest (1 hour).
  • 3
    Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and roll to 1cm thick. Cut into 1cm cubes and coat generously with flour. Hold the malloreddus board (see note) in one hand and rest the base of it on the bench. Place a piece of dough at the top of the board and use your thumb to squash and drag the dough down (the dough should curl slightly around your thumb to resemble a ridged shell), then set aside on a lightly floured tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Place in a colander and gently shake off excess flour, then cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente (5-7 minutes). Drain pasta, add to sauce and cook until coated (1-2 minutes), then stir through radicchio, parsley and grated pecorino. Serve hot with shaved pecorino.

Notes

Dried malloreddus, also known as gnocchetti Sardi, is available from select delicatessens. Malloreddus boards, also known as gnocchi boards, are available from select kitchenware shops.
This recipe is from the November 2010 issue of
.
Drink Suggestion: Sardinian rosé or cannonau. Drink suggestion by Giorgio de Maria

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