Maltagliati
mal-tah-LYAH-tee
Irregular scraps of egg sheet, cut at random.
30 mm wide, 0.8 mm thick
Name. From mal tagliati, badly cut. The offcuts from making tagliatelle.
What it is
Maltagliati are the scraps left over when a sfoglia is cut into tagliatelle: irregular diamonds and triangles of egg pasta, kept for soup. They are now made on purpose and sold dried.
In Emilia they go into pasta e fagioli. In Mantua and the Veneto they are dressed with beans, or with a simple butter or tomato sauce.
How to cook maltagliati
2 to 4 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
2:00
Start when the water returns to the boil.
Water and salt
- Pasta, dry
- 400 g
- Water
- 4 L
- Salt
- 40 g
100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.
The steps
- Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
- Add the maltagliati. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Fresh pasta has no dry core. It is done when it is tender, not when it resists.
- Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
- Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.
Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.
How it holds sauce
Thin irregular pieces with lots of edge, so they suit soups and loose sauces that they can float in: beans, chickpeas, a broth, a light tomato. They are too fragile for a heavy ragu.
Pairs with: Pasta e fagioli · Pasta e ceci · In brodo · Pomodoro
Classic plates: Maltagliati con i fagioli, Pasta e fagioli alla modenese, Maltagliati al pomodoro.
Nutrition
Per 100 g of fresh pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Fat | Sodium | Iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | 288 kcal | 11.3 g | 54.7 g | g | 2.3 g | 26 mg | 3.4 mg |
| Cooked | 131 kcal | 5.2 g | 24.9 g | g | 1.1 g | 6 mg | 1.1 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 220 g cooked, 288 kcal and 11 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.2 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes maltagliati
10 maltagliati products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Italy. Of those, 2 are organic, 4 are made in Italy.
Brands: Maltagliati (10).
No maltagliati? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Other names
Strengozze, begnamusi/sguazzabarbuz (Emilia-Romagna), blecs, foglie di salice (Piedmont), gasse, malfatti, malmaritati, martaliai (Liguria), pizzelle (Apulia), pizzocherini (Valtellina), sagne 'mpezze (Latium), spruzzamusi, straccetti, straciamus/spruzzamusi (Mantua), strengozze (Marche).
Read more
Semolina versus egg dough: the two doughs of Italian pasta
The difference between durum semolina pasta and egg pasta: flour, water, eggs, where each is made, how each cooks, and which sauces each dough wants.
Fresh versus dried pasta: neither is better, they are different foods
The difference between fresh and dried pasta: dough, texture, cook time, storage, and which shapes and sauces belong to each.
Sources
- Cook time: fresh egg pasta.
- Photograph: Maltagliati.jpg, Popo le Chien, CC0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169727, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, as purchased; FDC 169728, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, cooked), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Maltagliati, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q3844010, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.