It's All About (The) SARDINIAN CUISINE

Eating, in Sardinia, means family, tradition and plates of typical Sardinian cuisine, much like in the rest of central and southern Italy, a reason to pass time with your dear ones, to laugh and tell the latest news, sometimes even an occasion to discuss and argue in pure Italian style.

Sardinia has a distinctive cuisine: Italian, yes, but influenced by the invaders who came and went. Traces of the oldest of these, the mysterious Nuraghic people, can still be seen in the area’s tall towers, built around 1600 B.C., but it’s the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs and Spanish who’ve left their marks on the food. Indeed, Sardinia didn’t become part of Italy until 1861, so the island had more than 2,500 years to absorb these hybrid influences.

As a result, modern-day Sardinia is a one-of-a-kind conflation of cultures, with a unique food scene to match

SOME OF THE TOP SARDINIAN DISHES TO TRY ARE

Seafood Fregola With Saffron

Fregola, which means breadcrumbs, is a typical Sardinian pasta made of semolina and rolled into small balls. There are plenty of recipes for cooking fregola but the most delicious is definitely a seafood fregola: with clams, prawns and served with some saffron broth and a loaf of crunchy bread. Not everyone knows that Sardinia is a major saffron producer in Italy. This wonderful and very precious spice of intense red colour is used in many typical Sardinian dishes and is often called “red gold“ of Sardinia as its delicate threads require much time to be collected and dried and the cost of the final product is similar to that of the gold.

Bottarga

Bottarga is one of the most famous and tasteful delicacies of Sardinia originally coming from Cabras, a small town on the western coast of the island. This dried mullet roe can be tasted in thin slices as a starter or can be used to dress pasta, usually spaghetti o linguine.

Culurgiones

Culurgiones is a Sardinian first dish arriving from Ogliastra, the wildest part of Sardinia. It is a kind of home-made dumpling pasta stuffed with delicious mint-flavoured potato cream. Normally it is served with fresh tomato sauce and basil or with butter and sage.

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Source(s): Sardinia Unlimited, SBS, Food Republic, Great Italian Chefs & Charming Sardinia