How to make Nettle Malloreddus
...and not confuse cavatelli with malloreddus (like I did)
The original title of this post used the word ‘Cavatelli’ but after double-checking the pasta shape and origin, I realised that cavatelli is a slightly different pasta shape with a smoother surface and dimples formed by the index and middle finger. Cavatelli is from Puglia and is also popular in its neighbouring regions in southern Italy. The dough is traditionally made from semolina flour and water. Historically during harder times, ‘poor flour’ was created by grinding chestnuts or acorns, and used as the next best thing.
What I had actually made was malloreddus which derives from Sardinia. If you were buying malloreddus manufactured and dried, it would likely go by the name of Gnocchetti Sardi. Just like cavatelli, this variety uses a semolina dough. They have a conch-like shape with ridges on the outside for sauce to cling to. You can make them easily by pressing down the piece of dough with your thumb on a ridged surface and pushing the piece away from you.
Legend has it that Sardinian brides would walk to the house of their new husband, carrying a basket of handmade malloreddus and their family close behind. The bride would enter the house and her family would be warned off by gunshots fired by her husband. Together, the couple would eat the malloreddus from the same plate.
The diminutive of malloru - which means ‘bull’ in sardinian dialect spoken in the Campidano area - is malloreddus, meaning ‘little calves’. The word ‘malloreddu’ relates to their small rounded shape, which, from the perception of shepherds, was reminiscent of the shape of small calves.
Malloreddus alla campidanese is a classic recipe using this pasta variety which is a tomato-based sauce with sausage and saffron. In fact, saffron was sometimes used to colour the malloreddus pasta itself, giving this poor-man’s dough the likeness of an egg-rich dough, consumed by people in the wealthier or more prosperous regions of northern Italy. Alas, I didn’t make Malloreddus alla campidanese this time and instead opted for a simple tomato sauce a la Marcella Hazan.
For the past fortnight, we’ve had days of endless driving rain followed by two or three warm and sunny days. In other words, it’s the beginning of Spring. The grass in our garden and the fields around us is thriving, as is the wall of nettles along the back of our house. I know that I’ve written about using nettles before (you can find that article here) but I wanted to try another recipe using this versatile plant that is in no danger whatsoever of being over-foraged and is more nutritious than spinach or kale.
Despite nettles having a presence in many British, Greek, Romanian, Italian and Scandinavian cuisines, they’re not commonly consumed here in France. This might explain the odd look I received from a neighbour when I last picked them in Autumn, just off the main road of our hamlet.
I love making pasta at home. While others might consider the process a massive faff, I love the process. I’ll have an audiobook or podcast on and I’ll take a seat at the kitchen table with my pasta board, which cannot be used for anything other than pasta dough and I’m quite militant about that.
Another great thing about making fresh pasta is that the measurements per person are easy to remember: 1 portion of pasta = 100g of flour + 50ml water (or 1 medium egg if you’re using an egg-based recipe) - and therefore easy to adjust to your table size. For the risk of going off-piste, I’ll save the yolk-only recipe for another post.
For the Nettle Malloreddus recipe in today’s post, I incorporated the nettles into the dough itself. You can use spinach or kale or even smaller amounts of herbs such as parsley. But nettles are free and readily available. I totally understand that people are put off by nettles because of their stinging capabilities, but don’t knock them before you try them. For me, I also really enjoy the process of gathering and trying new flavours.
With all of my recipes, I create a ‘Considerations’ section. This is because I’m an over-explainer and, what should ideally be a section of bullet points for the method, turns into War and Peace. I do want to be able to share some additional thoughts, so this is my workaround for you to consider, as you wish. You’ll find it at the end of the recipe.
Ingredients (for two portions)
200g semolina flour or ‘00’ flour
100ml water
A few handfuls of nettle leaves (stalks removed)
Method
Wearing a thick pair of gardening or rubber gloves, collect your nettles by snipping with scissors or pinching the stem. Ideally, you want to take the top of the plant, the youngest part, so take the top few inches off or a little more if there are healthy-looking leaves below. You’ll need a few generous handfuls of the leaves. Discard or compost your stems. As the weather was so bad, I took my nettles inside to remove the leaves from the woody stalks and rinsed them in a colander.
Half-fill a saucepan of water and bring to a boil. Blanch your nettles for two minutes. Blanching up to 90 seconds neutralises the sting nettles are well known for, but I blanch them for a bit longer just to be safe.
Remove the nettles from the saucepan, place straight into a colander and under the cold tap or into a bowl of very cold or ice water. Drain as much water as you can from the nettles.
Add the nettles to a food processor along with 100ml of water and blitz until the nettles have been broken down into a pulp and the water is a deep green colour. (see Considerations)
Pass the nettles through a fine sieve into a jug and press as much liquid out of the pulp as you can. Re-measure the water. With any luck, you should have 100ml, give or take. If you don’t, try squeezing the pulp again to release any extra water. If it’s over 100ml, remove the extra and set aside. (see Considerations)
With the 200g of flour, create a mound on a clean work surface. Using a bowl or cup, gently press down into the centre of the flour to create a well. Now pour in the 100ml of water you have just extracted. If you’d like to add some of the nettle pulp for a fleck of colour or texture, now is the time to add. I added a tablespoon. (see Considerations)
Don’t throw any of the nettle pulp away. It’s edible after all and can be used to form part of your sauce or frozen in a container for another day. If you’re a keen gardener, you will also know that nettles create a fantastic (and free!) fertiliser for your plants and soil.
In a circular motion around the edge, begin to gently incorporate the flour with the water. Try to keep the liquid in the centre of the well at this stage by keeping the flour ‘walls’ intact. Gradually the liquid in the centre will turn into a paste. At this point, you can break the edges of the well and continue to form the dough with a fork and then with your hands. It may be a little sticky at first but the dough will become cleaner and pick up the remains of dough from your hands and the work surface along the way.
Knead for about 10 minutes and form into a ball. Poke the dough with your fingertip. If the dough bounces back, it is ready.
Cover the dough with a bowl or in a container and rest for 30 minutes. You can now use the dough however you like and for whatever shape, but I chose to make malloreddus.
With your scraper or knife, take a slither of the dough at a time and roll it into a sausage shape, no thicker than a centimetre. With your knife or scraper, cut the dough sausage into equal portions (about half a centimetre thick).
Traditionally, malloreddus is approx. 3cm in length and 1cm in width. Ultimately, you can make the individual pieces as large or as small as you like so long as they’re uniform. (see Considerations)
To form the malloreddus shape: take the dough and with your thumb, push down slightly and push the dough away from you. This method is commonly used with a wooden paddle (with ridges or patterns to imprint or form grooves in the dough). This is what I used to make my malloreddus, pictured below. (see Considerations)
The technique can take a few tries to master but eventually, you’ll feel the motion you need to make with your thumb and you’ll be on your way. If my description isn’t clear, there are tons of demonstrations on YouTube to help you.
You can leave malloreddus to dry completely and store for another day (in an airtight container) or use them immediately.
To cook, bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add your malloreddus. It will sink to the bottom of the pan. After several minutes, and one by one, they will begin to float to the top. Before draining them, try one for consistency and bite. They might need another minute or so after they bob to the top. I can’t give you a definitive time for boiling here as it will depend on the size of your malloreddus and how fresh they are. If they are relatively fresh and you stuck to the size described earlier on, I’d say 3-4 minutes.
Drain and serve with your sauce of choice. *Please let me know if it was unhelpful to only include the recipe for the pasta with some serving suggestions.*
Considerations
I added a tablespoon of the nettle pulp to the dough but you can experiment with more however, be sure to strain as much water as you can, otherwise you’ll end up with a wet dough and it will be difficult to handle. It’s worth also noting that adding too much of a ‘foreign object’ into a dough may prevent the gluten from forming properly and gluten is responsible for the elasticity of your dough.
If you’re conscious of water waste, you can reuse the water used in the blanching step for the 100ml required for the dough. Let it cool first otherwise, you’ll lose that vibrant green colour.
When it comes to forming the malloreddus, having sizes too varied will result in an uneven boil: smaller pieces will be overcooked and mushy whilst larger malloreddus may still be raw in the centre. Also remember that, the larger the pieces, the longer the cooking time.
If you don’t already have a ridged paddle, you can use a fork or the inside of a cheese grater to form grooves or a textured surface on your pasta pieces. You can be really creative here but the fork works best for this one.
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