Pasta Alla Campidanese
Of all the pasta recipes, this is probably my favorite. My aunt Elia would be proud of me: this gnocchetti alla campidanese turned out really good. This one is a typical Sardinian dish (Campidano is a vast plain in the south part of the island), whose basic ingredients are sausage and saffron. If you add some grated Pecorino cheese (less optional than in other pasta recipes) the resulting taste is fairly strong. Be ready for it.
Which sausage? Well, I wouldn’t know a proper word for it. In some recipes you sometimes find Italian sausage, but I’m not sure what it means. In this case it would be a Sardinian sausage, but it doesn’t help either. Let’s say it’s pork sausage, with a fair amount of fat. It’s not spicy, and it’s not a salami, which means it’s raw and you’re supposed to cook it. I’ve pasted a picture below. Whichever closest you can find to that, the better.
Which pasta? Sardinian gnocchetti (I found them in a Deli shop) is a ribbed pasta with a shape similar to small gnocchi, but that’s the only thing they have in common. An alternative is another type of pasta called malloreddus.
This pasta recipe is for four people:
- 320-350g (11-12oz) of gnocchetti or malloreddus
- a few strands of saffron
- 150g (5 oz) sausage
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
- ½ onion, chopped
- salt and pepper, olive oil
- a handful of Pecorino cheese
Remove the skin of the sausage and the fat in excess, and reduce it to small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion at low heat for about 10 minutes.
Add the sausage and let it go for another 10 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the saffron. Let if go at medium heat for about 30-40 minutes until the meat is cooked and the sauce has thickened.
Cook the pasta, drain, and add to the pan with the sauce. Stir for 2 minutes at high heat and serve.
More pasta recipes.
