Gnocchetti sardi with salted ricotta, a simple dish to make and really good! The perfect ricotta for this preparation is typical of Sardinia, ricotta mustia. Preferably made from sheep's milk, it is a fresh, salted and lightly smoked ricotta. Smoking gives this dairy product an unmistakable and incredible flavor, try it to believe! The first step to bring these fragrant and tasty Sardinian gnocchetti with ricotta mustia to the table is to prepare the fresh tomato sauce. In a frying pan, add a little extra-virgin olive oil and a clove of poached garlic that you have slightly crushed. Remove it before it burns! Add the cherry tomatoes (if you can't find them, piccadilly tomatoes are fine, as they are delicious both cooked and raw), after having washed them and cut them into four wedges lengthwise. Adjust the salt and cook over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce is creamy. Add the basil at the end of cooking. A few fresh leaves will add an inviting fragrance to the sauce. In the meantime, boil plenty of water to cook the Sardinian gnocchetti. The picture shows the malloreddus, Sardinian gnocchetti with a narrow and elongated shape, but also the "ciccioneddos", that is the round and small ones, will be fine.
Cook them in boiling salted water and, once cooked, put them directly in the sauce pan and toss them to season them well on a moderate heat. If you don't feel like or have time to turn on a second stove to prepare the cherry tomatoes, don't cook them! This first course is also great prepared with raw tomatoes, seasoned with oil, salt and basil, and served cold, like a pasta salad! Complete the Sardinian gnocchetti with salted ricotta by adding almost all of the grated ricotta mustia to the pan, with the heat off. Stir well and serve, completing each portion with another generous grating of ricotta.
Ingredients:
320 g of gnocchetti or malloreddus
500 g of cherry or piccadilly tomatoes
200 g of Sardinian ricotta cheese
1 garlic clove
fresh basil