AI-generated Zalzett tal-Malti
Also known as: Maltese sausage, Zalzett Malti
Malta
Zalzett tal-Malti is Malta's own pork sausage: coarse-ground shoulder and belly seasoned with sea salt, cracked black pepper and a large dose of coriander seed. Chopped parsley leaves green flecks in the pink filling, and many fresh batches get garlic too. The links are short and plump and come in long chains. In a village bar they arrive sliced, next to galletti crackers and peppered ġbejniet.
History
Pork dominates Malta's native sausages, and the coriander sets zalzett apart from its Sicilian neighbours. Maltese food writers tie the spice to the Arab chapter of the islands' history, though no source dates its arrival. The sausage left with Malta's emigrants: after the Second World War, butcher families in Sydney made it in their backyards for fellow migrants, and Zammit Smallgoods has produced it there for over 70 years. Malta marks 30 July as a day for eating it.
Ingredients
Preparation
The traditional recipe from Malta's public abattoir calls for 800 g shoulder and 200 g belly per kilo of mince, 25 g coarse sea salt and 80 g coriander mixed with coarse-ground pepper, plus a cup of chopped parsley and optional garlic. The filling goes into a cleaned casing, gets tied off about every 15 cm, and each link is pricked with a needle. Fresh links go straight to the fridge. Dried ones skip the garlic and hang for a few days first.
Taste
Coriander leads, with a citrus and earthy note that Maltese butchers call the heart of the recipe. Pepper and salt follow. It is a salty sausage, so many cooks simmer it for a few minutes before frying.
Texture
Raw, the filling is coarse and pale pink, dotted with black pepper and green parsley. Cooked, the casing browns while the inside stays loose and crumbly, which is why cooks often skin the links and crumble the meat into sauces.
Rituals & Traditions
The village bar plate
Friends order a glass of local wine and a plate of olives, ġbejniet and sliced zalzett with galletti. It is the most common way visitors first meet the sausage.
Skin it for sauces
For pasta, slit the casing, take out the filling and fry it loose with onion and garlic. The coarse meat breaks up into the sauce and carries the coriander through it.
Don't smother it in ketchup
Maltese-Australian sausage makers say zalzett needs no tomato sauce and no bread roll. Let the coriander do the talking.
Recipes
Gozitan Ftira with Maltese Sausage
Zalzett tal-Malti
Ftira Għawdxija is Gozo's open-topped bread pie, traced back to the village of Nadur. The classic filling is thin potato over ġbejniet, and many Gozitan cooks add slices of Maltese sausage. The dough edges fold over the filling and leave the centre open.
Spaghetti with Maltese Sausage
Zalzett tal-Malti
A Maltese home-kitchen pasta: skinned zalzett fried with onion and garlic, simmered in tomatoes, then finished with cream and chunks of fresh ġbejna. The coriander in the sausage seasons the whole sauce.
