Recipes

A stay in Cagliari also includes an encounter with a cuisine which offers a wide variety of excellent dishes. So forget about Italian and international cooking, at least for now, and let yourself be tempted by the flavours of the Sardinian tradition. The choice begins with the bread.

Sa Fregula

Ingredients: 200 gr of durum wheat flour, saffron, stock, 100 gr grated pecorino cheese.

Procedure: Place the flour in a wide, shallow pot, wet it with lightly salted water in which the saffron has been dissolved. Continue to run the flour through your fingers while stirring in a circle. In a short time little balls the size of a pepper corn will form. Put them all into a strainer to eliminate the flour left over and then place the balls of fregola on a cloth in the sun or on a pastry sheet and place in the oven to dry for a short time. When the balls are completely dry, cook them in the boiling stock. Serve with plenty of grated pecorino cheese.

Arselle (clams) A Schiscionera

Ingredients: 1 kg clams; garlic; parsley; oil; salt.

Procedure: Rinse the clams well and put them in a pan to cook without adding water. Once the heat has caused the shells to open, drain the water from the clams and leave it to settle. In another pan, brown a mince of garlic and parsley with a glass of olive oil, then add the clams in their shells and add the settled water. Cook for about 10 minutes. The clams are served in soup dishes on the bottom of which slices of fried bread can be placed. It is possible to prepare mussels or a combination of clams and mussels in the same way.

Gnocchetti with cockerels ("Malloreddus cun Cabonischeddus")

Ingredients for six servings: 2 cockerels 500/600 grams each; 500 gr of Malloreddus (small Sardinian gnocchi); 1.5 kg fresh tomatoes; ½ onion; 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 4 basil leaves; 50 gr grated pecorino cheese; salt to taste.

Procedure: Cut off the feet and heads of the cockerels, wash them and cut into uniform pieces. Pour the oil into a large casserole dish and arrange the pieces of cockerel. Brown uniformly on all sides. Prepare a mince of onion, peel tomatoes, eliminate seeds and mash coarsely. When the meat is well browned, add the onion and tomatoes, stir delicately and salt to taste. Cover and cook over a low flame for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, boil the gnochetti in plenty of salted water, remove when "al dente" and sauté for a few seconds in the sauce. Add the basil leaves and sprinkle with abundant grated pecorino cheese. Serve immediately.