Friday Feature: Maltagliati Pugliesi from Pasta Dal Cuore

Welcome to weekly series,"Friday Feature"! The first Friday of every month will continue to be "Get to Know JC Eater" showcasing a local resident and their recommendations, but on all other Fridays, a specific dish or food find from around Jersey City will be featured on the blog.

This week's feature is the Maltagliati Pugliesi from Pasta Dal Cuore.

The Maltagliati Pugliesi is one of the simpler dishes at Pasta Dal Cuore, but it's also one of my favorites. Made with Italian sausage, broccoli rabe, crushed red pepper, and pecorino, it's a little salty, a little spicy, not overwhelmingly heavy, and delicious. 

As with all of Pasta Dal Cuore's dishes, part of what makes the Maltagliati so excellent is the quality and taste of the house-made fresh pasta. It elevates the whole dish and emphasizes the actual pasta rather than just what it's coated in. However, the savory meatiness of the sausage, the tender and contrasting slightly bitter broccoli rabe, the mild saltiness from the pecorino, and the heat from the pepper also hold each their own, asserting their own flavors. Once everything is cooked together, the flavors start to mellow, meld, and caramelize, creating a richly flavored but not overly decadent dish that is perfect winter comfort food. It's a great version of a classic and always satisfying. 


Have a Friday Feature you'd like to nominate? Comment below, email me, or post a picture of it on Instagram with #jceatsFF along with a sentence or two about what it is you're nominating for a chance to have it included on the blog. One restriction - please don't nominate your own food if you're a restaurant or chef.