Ridged semolina shells, sometimes yellowed with saffron, in a sauce of crumbled fresh sausage and tomato, finished with grated pecorino. It is the Sunday pasta of the Campidano plain that Cagliari sits at the foot.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Malloreddus are shaped by pressing a thumb-sized piece of semolina dough against a ridged basket or board, which gives the ribbing that holds the sauce. The name comes from the Sardinian for small calves. The campidanese dressing takes its name from the Campidano, the wide plain running north from Cagliari, and it is built on the two things that plain produces: fresh pork sausage flavoured with fennel and myrtle, and tomatoes. Saffron, grown around San Gavino Monreale in the same plain, is stirred into the dough or the sauce in many households, which is why the pasta often arrives distinctly yellow. It is a dish of feast days and Sunday lunches rather than restaurant menus.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Use a coarse fennel-scented sausage. Lean mince gives you a bolognese, not a campidanese.
Su Cumbidu on Via Napoli feeds the Marina fixed-price Sardinian menus under brick arches, culurgiones and seadas at prices Cagliari students accept.
Try: Fixed-price Sardinian menus
Order: Culurgiones, potato and mint, in tomato sauce.
Tip: The set menus are the value play at around €20 to 30; go early, because groups book out the arched back room.
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