no.2
Malloreddus with Sorrel Pesto
Welcome back (and welcome to new subscribers) to Pasta Sunday, where each week I share a new recipe and the perfect pasta project for a Sunday afternoon. This week we’re making malloreddus, a typical hand formed pasta from the southern Italian island of Sardinia.
Once a week I like to head down to Southbank in Brisbane and walk from Grey Street up to Kangaroo Point cliffs and back. I grew up by the Thames in SW London and have always loved walking the river routes, so moving to Brisbane has been no exception. My favourite part of this weekly walk is getting to pass through the Epicurious community garden to see what’s growing, and what’s been harvested. If you’re lucky and swing by between 7-10am on Tue-Thu, you can pick up freshly picked herbs, veggies and whatever else is on offer for free. A beautiful community initiative that not many people seem to know about!
Anyway, that’s how I ended up with a bunch of sorrel in my possession; a versatile leafy green with an intense, lemon-like tang. The word sorrel translates from the French word for sour, which is really quite spot on as far as descriptors go. Sorrel has a long season, so it’s easy to grow but also not too difficult to find year-round. Think of it like a zesty spinach.
So about the recipe - I paired it with some fresh basil from my own garden, a couple of anchovy fillets (you can leave these out if you’re not a fan but I promise they won’t impart a fishy flavour in this), garlic, pine nuts and good quality mild olive oil, before stirring through grated Parmigiano Reggiano. A salt-spiked and citrusy pesto that screams for ridges and crevices to fill. Enter malloreddus, a relatively quick and simple pasta to whip up that has a shape literally made for sauce catching.
Shaping Malloreddus
If you don’t have a gnocchi board, that’s ok! You can use any utensil you have at home that can provide some ridges or texture, such as a fork, honey dipper or even the back of a cheese grater/microplane.
Once you’ve rolled your dough into ropes and cut into 1-2cm pieces, push your thumb into the dough and roll it away from from you, creating a hollow on one side and ridges on the other.
Suggested Wine Pairing
I have two diverse suggestions for your grape acquainted palette, one that makes sense and one that probably doesn’t but I’ll suggest it anyway: Verdicchio and Sangiovese, ticking the boxes for both white and red wine lovers alike.
Verdicchio is a dry, medium bodied white wine variety from the Veneto region of Italy. It is a classic pairing for both fish and… pesto! So works particularly well with this sorrel number. It’s crisp, earthy and as noted above, just makes sense as a pairing.
Sangiovese on the other hand - another Italian wine variety - is definitely not something you’d find listed as a typical wine pairing for pesto. But it does pair well with hard cheeses like Parimigiano Reggiano, and also with olive oil - both of which feature aplenty here. So here I am, putting it forward for the red wine inclined. Enjoy!
Sunday Soundtrack
Everything I’ve been listening to this week, throw it on and get kneading.