Malloreddus

What it is

Each piece carries a fan of fine ridges, pressed by hand against a reed. Cooks once shaped malloreddus on the ciuliri, also called su ciuliri, a round straw sieve or basket whose woven bottom left the back striped while the thumb hollowed the belly. A smooth wooden board could stand in for plain pieces. The dough is durum wheat semolina and water, sometimes tinted gold with saffron threads worked into the mix, a trick that gave a poor kitchen the look of a richer egg pasta. Malloreddus belongs to southern Sardinia, the Medio Campidano. It long held a festive role, served at village feasts, saints' days and weddings, where brides were said to bring homemade batches to the new household. The shape ranks among the oldest pasta forms on the island.

The name comes from the Sardinian Campidanese word malloru, meaning bull. Malloreddu is its diminutive, so malloreddus translates as little bulls or little calves (vitellini), a nod to the plump rounded shape of each piece. Some sources also propose a Latin root, mallolus, meaning a small lump or dumpling. Despite the common alias gnocchetti sardi, the name has no link to gnocchi; that label only describes the dumpling look. Sources note the malloru derivation as the prevailing account.