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Food & Home

Maltagliati, Sungold Tomato, Parmigiano

Here’s a pretty delicious (and easy) pasta recipe from Roberta’s Cookbook, which we tried out on Cookbook Club.

1. Lay the rolled sheets of pasta on a lightly floured work surface and crisscross them diagonally with a pizza cutter or a very sharp knife. (Maltagliati means “badly cut” in Italian, so don’t be too fussy—you want scrap-like, roughly triangular pieces of pasta, slightly bigger than bite-size.) If you’re not using the pasta right away, dust it lightly with flour, layer it between sheets of parchment paper on a sheet pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for up to 8 hours.

2. Put the cut pasta in a big bowl, and using your hands, gently toss it with a splash of olive oil.

3. Get a charcoal or gas grill going on medium-low heat. Toss half of the tomatoes with a little olive oil and salt, and put them on the grill; if the tomatoes are small enough to fall through the grate on your grill, you might have to use a grill basket. Let the tomatoes cook slowly; they’re done when their skin is blackening here and there and they look like they’re starting to melt. Use a big metal spatula to transfer them to a bowl, and set aside.

4. Put a large pot of generously salted water on to boil, and put three or four shallow bowls for serving in a 200°F oven to warm.

5. Halve the remaining tomatoes and use the back of a big spoon to push them through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Strain what’s in the bowl one more time. You should have a dark-colored tomato broth—thicker than tomato water but with no pulp. Season it to taste with salt and pepper.

6. Divide the tomato brother among the warmed shallow bowls. Drop the pasta into the pot of boiling water and boil for 2 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the pasta from the pot to a big bowl and quickly toss it with a splash of olive oil and about half of the parmigiano. Transfer the pasta to the warmed bowls. Scatter the grilled Sungolds over the pasta, and give each bowl a drizzle of olive oil. Grate the remaining parmigiano on top, and serve.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Roberta’s Cookbook.