We Make Lidia Bastianich's Malloreddus al Ragu

Lidia Bastianich makes extraordinarily delectable pastas. A lot of her recipes are rooted in her Istrian heritage, but many come from other parts of Italy. Malloreddus with sausage ragu is an example of the latter. The dish comes from the island of Sardinia off the west coast of Italy. We made it the other day and had such luck we decided to make it again and take pictures along the way. Lidia's malloreddus recipe in this case calls for saffron, but the dish can easily be made without. If you didn't want to make the semolina-based pasta from scratch, you could sub in orecchiette or mezze rigatoni, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Pictures are after the recipe. Buon appetito.

RAGU:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 medium onion, diced

1 32oz can whole peeled tomoatoes

6 sweet Italian sausage links, removed from casing

1/2 cup white wine

basil

salt, pepper, chili flake to taste

Pecorino

PASTA:

1 cup semolina flour

1/2 cup (will vary) water

Remove sausage from casing and place in a large bowl. Mix in 1/2 cup white wine WITH YOUR HANDS until the mixture is homogenous. Let rest at room temperature while you prepare the pasta and start the sauce.

1 cup of semolina flour yields about 4 servings.

Add flour to food processor (adjusting the amount depending on the number of guests you're feeding).

Slowly add water until the dough sticks to the blade and starts thrashing and spinning around the food processor like some sort of exorcism.

Success.

Remove to a semolina-floured board and...

Justify the demons, aka knead the dough for 2-3 minutes.

Wrap the dough and let it sit out for 30 minutes. The glutten will settle down and the dough will be easy to roll out.

Pur your favorite pan over medium heat. If you have an electric stove, break your lease.

Add finely chopped garlic to 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Get a medium-sized onion...

...and give it a small dice.

Add it to the garlic, hit it with chili flakes, and sautee for 10 minutes. Salt just before you add the sausage.

Add the sausage, but don't touch it! Let it brown and carmelize for 15 minutes before you stir it. That's where a lot of the flavor in this dish comes from.

Open a can of whole, peeled tomatoes. Make sure you go the San Marzano "D.O.P." route. The recipe calls for basil, so the added basil leaf in the tomatoes is no biggy.

Crush the tomatoes to whatever consistency you like.

And add them to the nicely browned sausage, salt to taste, cover and simmer over low heat for thirty minutes.

Get basil...

...and add it to the ragu. Simmer for thirty minutes uncovered so the sauce reduces and tightens up.

With the ragu simmering, unwrap the pasta onto a semolina-floured board.

Cut into thirds.

Roll each third into a rope.

Cut one-inch pieces out of the rope.

Almost malloreddus.

Use a microplane to form the pasta.

Apply pressure and pull the dough gently down the stream microplane.

The top will curl slightly over your thumb. That's when you stop and sort of flick the dough off the microplane.

That's what they'll look like. Sauce sticks to the ribbed outside and the little divot is the perfect catch for bits of sausage and tomato.

As you make them, add the malloreddus to a cloth-lined baking sheet and dust with semolina to prevent sticking.

Heavily salt boiling water and drop 'em in. Like gnocchi or ravioli, malloreddus float once they're cooked.

Strain the malloreddus into some of the ragu, which you have bubbling over low heat in a separate pan.

Finish with Pecorino and a few cracks of black pepper.