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Sardegna
Food - Sardinian food:
Sardinia is called Sardegna in Italian.
Sardinian food: Bottarga (mullet roe), also known as Sardinian caviar, is considered one of the most authentic, delicious examples of the island's gastronomic tradition. Bottarga is made from mullet eggs, which are carefully extracted from the fish, with great care being taken to avoid rupturing the sacks that hold them. Similar to tuna roe, but with a more delicate flavor, bottarga is often served in fine slices, alongside slices of celery drizzled with good olive oil. Combining bottarga with artichoke hearts is another popular way of serving it, poetically uniting two Sardinian food products from the land and the sea. An article on bottarga.
The heritage of preserving seafood and farming the
nutrient rich sea salt of the tidal marshes to preserve that seafood is
maintained to this day especially in Sicily and Sardinia. Fishermen from
Sardinia bring the tradition of air-cured tuna and flavorful sea salt
to the rest of the world, the most renowed is their bottarga, mullet roe
sardinia.
Once known as the poor man's caviar bottarga is the salted, pressed and
dried roe of either the tuna (tonno) or gray mullet (mugine). It is a
specialty of both Sardinia and Sicily. The long, fat roe sack is salted
and massaged by hand over several weeks to eliminate air pockets. The
mullet roe is then pressed using wooden planks and stone or marble weights.The
bottarga is then sun dried for one to two months.
While some think that this practice of preserving the tuna or mullet roe
is the legacy of the Byzantines, the practice actually goes farther back
to ancient and possibly even pre-historic times. The same process is used
in Turkey, Egypt, and even coastal areas of Asia.
Tuna bottarga has a lively, salty, sharp flavor, stronger than gray mullet
bottarga. Bottarga is shaved, sliced, chopped or grated, and just a little
can provide a ton of flavor to a whole host of dishes. The most popular
dish in the Sardegna food tradition is Spaghittus
cun bottariga (Spaghetti with Bottarga), or linguine
con bottarga, made with grated or finely chopped bottarga, olive oil,
red pepper flakes, and chopped parsley, simple but delicious.
Top a salad of bitter greens with shaved bottarga, or grate it into your
rice congee for a more flavorful breakfast. Bottarga should be kept in
the fridge to maintain its flavor.
Not to forget in the Sardinian food list are the traditional breads of Sardinia that tend to be hard and dry, and prepared only once a week. Pane carasau, a crisp, very thin bread that is made from durum wheat semolina and wheat flour, can keep for weeks at a time due to its very low water content; traditionally, it was the bread that shepherds and herdsmen could carry with them during their months in the mountains. In recent years, this bread has increasingly been called carta da musica by visitors from the mainland, because it resembles sheets of parchment-like music manuscript paper.
The quintessential pasta of Sardegna is malloreddus, a small gnocchi made from durum wheat semolina, salt and water, and given its distinctive yellow color by the addition of saffron. Small pieces of the pasta dough are rolled across thin wires or a ridged board to give them their characteristic ridged surface. Malloreddus are traditionally served with a simple tomato sauce, a hearty lamb or sausage ragu, or with butter and grated percorino cheese.
© 1997-2010 Enrico Massetti
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