Sardinia offers a feast of flavours for those willing to explore the island’s culinary offerings, reveals Catherine Richards
It’s spring on the Italian island of Sardinia and, for the first half of April at least, the traditional Easter loaf, s’angulla, is being prepared. Kneaded until white, the coccoi dough is shaped into a heart and baked with the traditional Easter symbol, an egg.
Bread plays a fundamental role in the Sardinian diet (an ancient proverb says ‘Chie hat pane mai non morit’, which means, ‘One who has bread never dies’). The soft, white coccoi loaves are the most special, reserved for the most important celebrations. The varieties of bread on the island are infinite, made from durum wheat (grown here for 9,000 years), semolina or barley, although it’s the pane carasau that has become closely associated with Sardinia. Round and flat, the carasau – or carta musica, as it’s sometimes known – is found everywhere, often served grilled and drizzled with Sardinia’s full-flavoured olive-oil.
Homegrown produce
Spring also brings milk-fed Sardinian lamb to the table, joining the year-round dishes of braised and boiled mutton. Often served with wild fennel and artichokes, the best lamb is said to come from the flat, coastal provinces of Oristano on the west of the island and Orosei in the east, where sweet pastures, sun and salt spray make for a tender, pale meat with an almost gamey flavour.
Sheep outnumber people on Sardinia. Vital to the cultural life of the island for thousands of years, and equally important to the economy, the milk from Sardinia’s pecore produces some of the island’s tastiest cheeses: pecorino sardo and fiore sardo, which today are exported all over the world. Sardinia also produces a range of excellent goat’s cheeses and ricotta, used in both savoury and sweet dishes. Try them with Sardinia’s fabulous honey, made from eucalyptus, myrtle and asfodel, or the rare bitter honey, miele amaro, made from the corbezzolo plant.
Traditional taste
Some say pasta was first made in Sardinia – the varieties here are certainly as old as those from Genoa, Naples or Sicily. Try culingionis, fresh ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach or chard, or malloreddus – a small, gnocchi-like pasta, sometimes flavoured with saffron, traditionally served with a simple tomato sauce and grated pecorino.
On the coast you’ll find spaghetti served with clams, or bottarga – a much-prized island speciality. Known as Sardinian caviar, bottarga is mullet roe, or the stronger-tasting tuna roe.
Fresh from the sea
Although today fish and seafood feature heavily on Sardinia’s coastal menus, historically the islanders were rarely fishermen. For thousands of years the sea brought danger in the form of invaders, while the Sardinians lived as hunters and shepherds in the rocky, harsh interior. The Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and Spanish have all left their mark on the island’s language, culture and food.
Today, Cagliari is the island’s most important fishing port and home to Italy’s largest fish market, San Benedetto (located between Via Cocco Ortu and Via Baccaredda), which is a riot of colour and noise. Lobster, octopus, squid, clams, sea urchins, prawns, anchovies and tuna are just some of the offerings you’ll find in restaurants around the island.
The tuna is exceptional: try it chargrilled or smoked (affumicato), infused with the scent of rosemary and juniper wood. Don’t leave without trying the clam soup, fregula con cocciula, and burrida, made from dog-fish and tomatoes or marinated in walnuts and garlic.
Wash it all down
Sardinia is one of Italy’s oldest vinicultures. Vermentino di Gallura, from the north of the island, is one of only four white wines in Italy awarded the DOCG classification. Delicate, fruity and with a hint of almond, it’s best drunk young and very chilled, and is perfect with fish and seafood.
Other white wines include Vermentino di Sardegna, Nuraghus di Cagliari, Sardegna Semidano and a number of fine dessert wines that accompany Sardinian pastries: Moscato, Vernaccia di Oristano and Malvasia. Of the reds, the full-bodied Cannonau is probably the best known. If you can, search out Carignano del Sulcis, a lighter red from the south of the island, and Monica di Cagliari, a velvety, rounded wine best drunk with fruit and pastries. One of the best vineyards on the island is Cantina Sociale Santadi, south-west of Cagliari (tel. +39 078 195 0127, cantinadisantadi.it). Pop along for a visit and tasting, and buy a case or two.
What better way to round off a meal than with a glass of Sardinia’s velvety liquor, Mirto di Sardegna, which is made from the dark-red berries of the intensely perfumed myrtle. The plant grows in abundance across the island, and the Sardinians learnt long ago that their simple diet could be enhanced by its leaves and berries.
Roast suckling pig, porceddu arrosto – the most well-known of the island’s many meat dishes – is wrapped in myrtle leaves as it turns on a spit, while the berries are used in desserts and stuffing mixes for rabbit, hare, wild boar and mutton.
Intensity, taste and simplicity are the hallmarks of Sardinian cuisine.
As the Sardinians themselves say, ‘Sa cosa cara est sa pius saborida’ – ‘The dearest things are full of flavour’.
Chef recommends
Sardinian-born chef Efisio Farris is a passionate advocate of the island’s food. Now based in Texas, USA – where he and his brother, Francesco, run two restaurants – he learned to cook in his aunt’s kitchen at her restaurant, Su Barchile in Orosei.
“Sardinia is unique in its dishes, flavours and ingredients,” he says, recommending malloreddus pasta with a sauce of wild boar, or fregula, Sardinia’s Arab-inspired version of couscous, served in a broth. “Some of the best and most famous Italian dishes in the world were peasant dishes, such as pane frattau, carasau bread topped with tomato sauce, pecorino and a poached egg.” And to take home with you? Efisio recommends Sardinia’s rare miele amaro bitter honey.
Eating out
Cagliari
All prices are for three courses
La Balena (Via Santa Gilla 123, Cagliari, tel. +39 070 288415. Closed Saturday lunchtimes and Sunday). There’s no menu, no coffee and no credit cards – just the freshest fish and seafood. €20
Dal Corsaro (Via le Regina Margherita 28, tel. +39 070 664318, www.dalcorsaro.com. Closed Sunday). A renowned family-run restaurant. €50
Crackers (Corso Vittorio Emanuele 195, tel. +39 070 653912. Closed Wednesday). Trattoria serving authentic Sardinian cuisine – fish and meat. €30
S’Apposentu (Via Sant’Alenixedda, Teatro Lirico, tel. +39 070 4082315, sapposentu.it. Closed Sunday and Monday). One of the best restaurants in Cagliari. €50
La Mola Sarda (Via le Trento 84, tel. +39 070 280983. Closed Monday). A trattoria with a garden. Serves local cuisine, with predominantly fish dishes on the menu. €25
Outside Cagliari
All prices are for three courses
Da Gianni (Località Porto Budello, Teulada, tel. +39 070 928 3015. Closed Monday). With a fabulous view of the sea. Serves mostly seafood and fish. €35
Ristorante le Grotte (Centro Turistica Is Zuddas, Santadi, tel. +39 078 195 4151. Closed Monday). Serves authentic, inland Sardinian cuisine. €35
Pasqualino (Via Regina Margherita 85, Calasetta, tel. +39 078 188473. Closed Tuesday). On the island of Sant’Antioco, off the south-west coast of Sardinia, serving the freshest seafood and fish. €30
Sa Lolla (Via Cavour 49, Barumini, tel. +39 070 936 8419. Closed Wednesday). Close to one of the most important megalithic sites on the island. Serves a range of inland Sardinian dishes. €30
Letizia (Via San Pietro 10/12, Nuxis, tel. +39 078 195 7021. Closed Tuesday). Relaxed trattoria, with typical inland cuisine. €28
Island food culture
The fascinating Museum of Sardinian Food Traditions (Casa Steri, Via Roma 2, 09020 Siddi, Cagliari), located in a 17th-century house, documents the history of food production and cooking on the island. See a mock-up of a Sardinian kitchen with its enormous ovens, a pre-industrial grain mill, and a host of machines and tools used in olive oil, cheese and bread production
La pleine saveur
La Sardaigne offre un vrai régal de saveurs. Un proverbe ancien ne dit-il pas “Celui qui a du pain ne meurt jamais”? Précisément, on peut déguster sur cette île une infinie variété de pains, depuis le carta musica de forme ronde et plate, grillé et arrosé d’un fil d’huile d’olive jusqu’au pain de Pâques en forme de coeur, s’angulla.
Au printemps vient le temps de l’agneau de lait, plus souvent de la côte d’Orisei dans l’est de l’île, où le soleil et les embruns marins concourent à son goût délicat. Le lait d’agneau sert de base aux fromages les plus prisés comme le pecorino sarde. Ne manquez pas non plus le fromage de chèvre relevé de miel amer, un produit rare de Sardaigne.
Les pâtes, selon certains, seraient une invention sarde. Essayez les culingionis, des raviolis frais farcis au fromage ricotta et aux épinards ou le long de la côte, les spaghettis avec des bottarga, des œufs séchés de mulets connus comme le ‘caviar sarde’.
Le marché au poisson de San Benedetto, à Cagliari, est une profusion de bruits et de couleurs. On y trouve du homard, de la pieuvre, des calamars, des coquillages et des oursins pêchés dans les eaux insulaires. Le thon est tout à fait exceptionnel, à déguster grillé au feu de bois ou fumé.
La Sardaigne peut se targuer d’une des plus anciennes traditions vitivinicoles d’Italie. Au nord de l’île, le Vermentino di Gallura aux accents délicats, fruités, avec une pointe d’amande se boit de préférence jeune, très frais en accompagnement de fruits de mer. Du côté des rouges, le Cannonau très robuste est le plus apprécié. A découvrir aussi le Carignano del Sulcis, un vin rouge plus léger du fin fond du sud de l’île. Et après le repas rien ne surpasse un verre de la liqueur la plus parfumée de l’endroit, Mirto di Sardegna, de baies rouges et blanches.
Intensité, goûts simples et naturels sont les maîtres mots de la cuisine de ‘Sardegna’.
Smakeneiland
Sardinië zit boordevol smaak. “Met brood ga je nooit dood”, luidt een gezegde. Het eiland biedt dan ook oneindig veel soorten brood, van de ronde en platte carta musica, geroosterd en besprenkeld met olijfolie, tot het hartvormige paasbrood s’angulla.
In de lente schaft de pot melklam.
Vooral dan aan de kust van het oostelijke Orisei, waar de zon en het zeewater het vlees een wildsmaak geven. Van de schapenmelk maakt men lekkere kaas, zoals de pecorino sardo. De geitenkaas is dan weer overheerlijk met Sardiniës zeldzame bittere honing.
Pasta zou in Sardinië uitgevonden zijn. Proef beslist van de culingionis, verse ravioli gevuld met ricotta en spinazie, of van spaghetti met bottarga, de kuit van zeebarbeel, ook ‘Sardische kaviaar’ genoemd.
De vismarkt van San Benedetto in Cagliari is één en al kleur en lawaai.
De restaurants op het eiland serveren kreeft, inktvis, schelpdieren, zee-egels, garnalen, ansjovis en tonijn. Die laatste is bijzonder lekker, vooral gerookt of bereid op houtskool.
Sardinië is een van de oudste wijnstreken van Italië. In het noorden vind je de Vermentino di Gallura, een subtiele en fruitige wijn met een toets van amandel die je best jong en fris drinkt, bij zeevruchten. De volle Cannonau is wellicht de bekendste rode wijn. Maar ook de Carignano del Sulcis, een lichtere rode uit het zuiden, is de moeite waard. En om de maaltijd af te ronden, gaat er niets boven een glaasje Mirto di Sardegna, een zachte likeur gemaakt van de donkerrode, geurige mirtebes.
Intensiteit, smaak en eenvoud zijn de handelsmerken van de Sardische keuken.
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