7 Things To Eat In Sardinia

 

Sardinia is known for its crystal clear sea, but also its cuisine deserves a place of honor among the delights of Italian cuisine.

 

 

Sardinian cuisine keeps alive ancient traditions that have remained “pure”, since, being an island, have not had the opportunity to blend with those neighboring. Certain recipes are not known to have their origins in the past, because they have been jealously handed down from mother to daughter for generations and generations. Discover which are the 7 things to eat in Sardinia!

You can eat well everywhere, just like in Italy. But there are some things that one, mainly if he comes to Sardinia for the first time, should really taste for saying that he has known the traditional Sardinian cuisine.

 

 

1 – Carasau bread

Carasau bread is also called music paper because of its thinness and crunchiness. It was baked in the house oven about once a month. For the occasion the family gathered because they needed more arms for this job. Two or three families, perhaps sisters, joined together and used the opportunity to prepare a commission for all.
Men were also involved. The alarm clock was set at 4 o’clock because it was necessary to knead by hand and light the wood-burning oven. Then it was the women who thought of pulling the sheets and baking the bread … twice. Yes, because the characteristic crunchiness of this bread is due to the double baking. First it is put in the oven like a pizza. It swells and is cut along the edge becoming 2 discs that are then baked separately.
This bread is still produced today by some families for their own consumption, but there are now several bakeries specializing in producing carasau bread.
It can be found in almost all Sardinian farmhouses and restaurants, and can be eaten as it is, but also put back in the oven with the addition of oil and salt, called guttiau bread, or even wet (it becomes like a piece of cloth), to wrap aubergines to parmigiana or a piece of cheese. Some farms offer it wet and seasoned with tomato sauce, pecorino cheese and eggs, the typical bread frattau.

 

 

2 – Pecorino cheese

Pecorino cheese is also found in other Italian regions. The most famous “cousin”, Roman pecorino, was born from the work of Sardinian shepherds who moved to Lazio and Tuscany to produce cheese – unfortunately for them they did not think to register a trademark.
Pecorino is a cheese that today is produced by all dairies in Sardinia, but there are still shepherds who produce for personal consumption and are willing to sell or give some form.
It is a very tasty cheese, which can be enjoyed either fresh – mainly in winter, melted on the grill of the fireplace and eaten with carasau bread – or seasoned. It is used to season the various first courses of Sardinian cuisine and is usually brought to the table at the end of a meal.

 

 

3 – The Bottarga

What is a roe? They are dried fish eggs (usually mullet or tuna). They are very tasty and considered a delicacy. They can be eaten in different ways. As an appetizer sliced with artichokes or celery and tomatoes, all seasoned with good olive oil.

Its most common use is on spaghetti. And it is also the simplest recipe, because all you need is spaghetti, excellent extra virgin olive oil and grated bottarga.

In Sardinia, the largest production is made in Cabras, Oristano, but now it has become a dish that can be found throughout Sardinia.

 

 

4 – The Fregola

La fregola, one of the 7 things to eat in Sardinia, is a specialty of pasta typical of southern Sardinia. Its peculiarity is that more than a pasta, it looks like grains of wheat.

Today it is produced of the fregola of excellent quality in some Sardinian pasta factory, but its origins tell of women who sprayed water on the work table covered with flour and that the drops of water, after “moved” gently with their fingers, formed the original uneven balls characteristic of the fregola.

The most common and appreciated combination is with clams or seafood.

 

 

5 – Malloreddus

Malloreddus are a typical Campidano pasta format. Today this is also produced by several pasta factories (also Barilla), but originate from those made by hand by Sardinian housewives who, forming cords with the pasta, then using both thumbs cut small curved pieces with a shape that is between the gnocchi and orecchiette.

They have become the typical Sardinian pasta, proposed in almost all the farmhouses in Sardinia. It can be seasoned in various ways, but it gives its best with a red sauce of meat, perhaps wild boar, with the addition of plenty of grated pecorino cheese.

 

 

6 – Seadas

The Sardinian dessert par excellence. This speciality receives different names depending on which part of Sardinia you go to eat. It can be seada, like sevadas, or sebadas and others similar. It is a pasta sheet filled with cheese and then fried and seasoned with Sardinian honey.

It is a delicacy that few people know how to resist and, with the times, some variations have been added that are also very appreciated, such as the seada stuffed with ricotta cheese and orange peel.

 

 

7 – Nougat

The villages of the interior in the Nuorese, are known for the production of Sardinian nougat. Made exclusively with honey, is produced using the different nuts available, such as walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts.

It is sold on all village festivals, in the typical shacks along the center and the producers are more often than Tonara and Desulo.

 

 

Giulio Sacripanti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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