Sardinian Cuisine

Simple and yet very original, enriched by local ingredients, characterized with simple flavors, free from any adulteration, infused with the aroma of herbs and fragrant wood and never spicy.

• Cured meats
• Bread
• First courses
• Main courses

• Cheeses
• Desserts
• Wine
• Spirits

Cured meats

We should not forget the many types of Sardinian cured meats. Pork is not only used for roasting but also to produce an excellent variety of cold cuts. There is a limited production of “capocollo”, a dry cured salty pork meat made using the muscles on the neck, “pancetta” made using the underside of the pig and cured in a way that is similar to that of prosciutto, “prosciutto crudo” that comes from the upper hind leg and shoulder of the pig and Sardinian sausage, once exclusively homemade and now produced everywhere and available raw, cured or smoked. It is made using lean pork meat cut into medium sized pieces mixed with lard, salt, pepper, aniseed of fennel seeds, cloves and parsley. A real delicacy, very popular with gourmets, is wild boar prosciutto.

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Bread

The best known of Sardinian breads outside the island is Carasau bread, also called ‘musical paper’ by foreigners. It has the appearance of wafer thin circular crispy layers and it keeps very well for a long time. Shepherds were carrying it with them during transhumance. If eaten with tomatoes and eggs it turns into a specialty called Frattau bread and in the shops you can find the same type of bread seasoned with oil and salt and it is called Guttiau bread. Another type of bread known outside the island is “civraxiu”, a large round bread with a crisp crust and soft interior. Especially good if accompanied by the juices of roast suckling pig or roast lamb. Worth mentioning is also “su coccoi” which in the Campidano area is made with fine flour or with semolina. A very popular bread not only for its taste but also for its shape which changes from village to village. There is also “su moddizzosu”, a circular and very soft bread. It is particularly good with cheese and cured meats. Another type of bread is “spianadas”, circular in shape, soft and easy to transport.

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First courses

Before we start telling you about first courses we should spend a few words on Sardinian wheat which still has an excellent reputation both for its quality and its flavor. It is used for the production of first rate quality pastas. Among the best known Sardinian pastas are malloreddus, made using the best semolina and warm water lightly salted and in the best Sardinian culinary tradition malloreddus are flavored with saffron. They look like an empty shell and are characterized by small rises obtained by rolling small pieces of pasta on the bottom of a basket. A typical dish is Malloreddus Campidanese style with tomato sauce, sausage cut in small pieces and abundant grated pecorino cheese. Fregula are small handmade balls of pasta which are toasted in an oven. They are very good in soup or seasoned with fresh sausage and tomato. A typical dish is called “Fregula cun cocciuta” (fregola with clams). Pillus is a semi-fresh pasta similar to “tagliolini” which is cooked in beef or sheep stock served on a bed of fresh sheep's cheese. Panadas are savory cakes which, depending on the area, are stuffed with meat or stewed eels, or even game (partridge, wild boar or hare). And finally the “culurgiones ogliastrini”, unusual little pouches made of pasta containing mashed potato, egg yolks, fresh pecorino cheese, onion and fresh mint.
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Main courses

Ever-present is the suckling pig which is roasted on a hand-crafted spit made of strawberry tree wood seasoned only during cooking with salt, lard and fresh herbs such as myrtle, rosemary, bay leaf and sage to give the meat inimitable flavor and fragrance. The unique method of cooking completes the dish. It is worth mentioning also two other ways of roasting. The first, which is called “mallori de su sabatteri” comes from the Nuoro region and consists in introducing animals one inside the other in the following way: you fill a calf with a goat which in turn contains a suckling pig and so on, you keep on inserting an animal into another like in Chinese boxes. The second way of roasting consists of digging a hole in the ground where aromatic woods and myrtle leaves are burning and burying a suckling pig or a wild boar. Then you cover the hole with myrtle branches and hot embers. The meat is cooked very slowly by the hot embers and becomes very aromatic. This way of roasting is called “carraxiu” in Sardinian language. Among the various game dishes is “Is pillonis de t'accula” which is a delicious dish made with thrushes and blackbirds. The birds are boiled in salty water and wrapped in myrtle leaves for flavor. Before we start talking about fish we must say that Sardinia, despite its abundance in fish and seafood, does not have many original recipes because Sardinian people were not fishermen by tradition. So seafood specialties are influenced by other populations who arrived in Sardinia. Let us mention “burrida”, a dish from Genoa subsequently transformed by Sardinian cuisine. This dish consists of boiled dogfish covered with a sauce made combining oil, vinegar and chopped walnuts. There is also “cassola”, a soup made using a variety of fish, the delicious roast mullet and “scabecciu”, which is mullet marinated in vinegar, and lobster with “vernaccia” in which the noble lobster is enriched with cloves and delicate white wine.
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Cheeses

Sardinian fresh sheep's cheese, Pecorino DOC, is surely one of the best known cheeses in the world. It is made of sheep's milk and has the fragrance of grass. It is cylindrical in shape and rarely weights more than 3 kg. Apart from being an excellent table cheese it can also be grilled or grated. Roman Pecorino DOC is originally a cheese from the area around Rome called Lazio but it has been adopted by Sardinia. It is considered by everyone the king of sheep cheeses. It is made using only whole milk from the sheep of Lazio and Sardinia. The cylinders can be from 18 to 32 kg in weight. Aging time varies but it is never less than 8 months; it is generally used for grating but it is excellent also as a table cheese. Fiore Sardo DOC is another artisan cheese made following an ancient Sardinian recipe. Its average weight is 3.5 kg and it is made using exclusively fresh sheep's milk curdled with lamb or goat's rennet. There is no doubt that with Fiore Sardo DOC Sardinia makes a unique and proud contribution to the great cheeses of Italy. Worth a mention are also the canestrati cheeses that are produced from whole sheep’s milk and molded in wicker baskets; a wide range of fresh sheep cheeses made of full cream sheep's milk, natural milk enzymes and liquid rennet; goat cheeses are made with full cream goat milk and, according to hygienists and dieticians, are among the healthiest cheeses. And finally we should remember the many types of ricotta cheese produced in Sardinia, which are completely hand made by heating the whey that remains after the production of sheep cheeses.

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Desserts

The variety of Sardinian desserts uses almonds as their main ingredient. Chopped almonds are indeed the main ingredient of the gattò, which contains also sugar or honey and orange peel. There are culurgiones de mendula (almond ravioli), typical pastries made in February for the Mardi Gras, copulettas, a rustic version of meringues, amaretti (macaroons) and suspirus. On the most solemn religious occasions such as All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, typical cakes such as pane'e sapa or pabassinas, made of concentrated must or sapa, are prepared. Other well known Sardinian cakes are pirichittus, pistoccos, mustazzoli and pardule. It is worthwhile mentioning the well known sebadas, which are a typical Sardinian dessert made of cheese and honey. The same Sardinian desserts have different names in different parts of the island.

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Wine

With the introduction of new technologies both for growing vines and for wine production, Sardinia made a jump ahead in the production and the marketing of its top wines. Today’s wine industry offers a selection of high quality wines that compete with the best of the European production. Privately owned wineries, with modern small or medium cellars, have emerged next to the traditional wine cooperatives and they boast modern production and marketing techniques. These wines are balanced and smooth and yet they are easily recognizable during tastings for their distinct flavor, they induce meditation and reflect the richness of the soil where they come from.

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Spirits

The “File 'e ferru” (distilled white spirit) is certainly the best known among Sardinian spirits. It is made from selected marcs and it is a typical spirit from Oristano and the inland.
It is interesting to know that the name "file'e ferru" derives from the piece of iron wire which was used to indicate where the spirit had been buried underground. In fact, at the turn of the last century it was produced illegally to avoid paying high taxes to the producers. It is worth mentioning another distilled spirit, the famous grappa. The aroma and taste of the grappa depends on the grapes from which it derives. Vernaccia, moscato, vermentino, cannonau and malvasia are all used to produce grappa and are widely available. Among the digestive liqueurs there is “mirto rosso” which is made from an infusion of myrtle berries in alcohol with honey or sugar added. "Mirto bianco" is a delicate liqueur made by infusing the flower buds from the myrtle in alcohol. It has a more delicate taste and a light green color. There are also “Limonello” and “Ficodindia” liqueurs which are obtained by infusion in alcohol, with sugar or honey added respectively to lemon peel for limonello and ripe prickly pears for the ficodindia. Another typical production is the Villacidro liqueur, made using a secret ancient recipe. There are two types of "Villacidro": white and yellow. The yellow type is made by adding saffron, now grown in Sardinia despite its eastern origin.

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