L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano Malloreddus, or gnocchetti Sardi, are a typical shape of pasta from Sardinia © Oxana Denezhkina | Dreamstime.com LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES VARINIA CAPPELLETTI Continued to page 30 A pinch of mystery, a lot of history: the secret recipe of Sardinian cuisine T ake a pinch of Phoenician civiliza- tion, add a tad of Carthage and Rome, a sprinkle or Arabic spices, some Genoese allure and Tuscan herbs. Mix it all with a rich base of local nuragic tradi- tion, for no less than 3000 years and voilà! Here is our out of time island: Ichnussa for the Phoeni- cians, Argyróphleps Nèsos for the Greeks. Sardinia has mountains and hills, ponds and impetuous creeks, forests and caves, sandy coasts and rocky ones, corals and waters so clear it's hard to find anything better. The very variety of such ecosystem makes of the island a sort of "micro-continent." Sardinia has a typically Mediterranean climate, which al- lowed cultivations of cereals, grapes, olive trees, citrus fruits and artichokes to develop since the inception of times. Fields are watered thanks to the many arti- ficial lakes, including that of Omodeo, near Alghero, the largest artificial lake in Italy. Contrarily to what you may expect, considering Sardinia is an island, the fishing industry started developing only in the 18th cen- tury, after Moors and pirates ended their raids around its coasts. It is particularly important in the area of Cagliari and in Alghero, where a delicious lobster variety comes from. We should also mention the tuna fishing tradition of San Pietro island, where the tabarchina culinary style hails from: a fantastic "melting pot" of Genoese, Lomellina and Tunisian flavors. Large scale sheep farming is central to the island's economy. Today, pecorino cheese is one of the most important dairy exports in the world even if, unfortu- nately, it is a product often coun- terfeited, as it happens to many other Made in Italy excellences. Certainly, Sardinia can be con- sidered one of the Mediterranean' s cultural strongholds and, as such, one of the best embodiments and protectors of its diet, which has been part of the UNESCO In- tangible World Heritage since 2010. Its historical vicissitudes, priv- ileged position and, at the same time, the isolation derived from being an island, are the main in- gredients that created and shaped Sardinian gastronomy. In Sar- dinia, we can find typically "mari- nara" cuisine, with Genoese basil and Catalan tomato sauce; a heartier, farming cuisine, simple and tied to the rhythms and flavors of the earth, and to cooking in un- derground embers; and finally, we'll encounter the traditional tabarchina cuisine of the Sulcis archipelago, the result of a super- position of Ligurian, African and Sardinian food culture. The sea offers many a combi- nation, all delicious and at times even a tad strange, such as floured and fried sea anemones. Among Sardinia's greatest classics, we should certainly mention the Spaghitus cun arritzonis, spaghetti with sea urchins, the Aligusta a sa casteddaia (Cagliari lobster) and the Fregula cun còciula (fre- gola with clams). One of the most important specialties of Sardinia is mullet roe (mullet eggs dried in salt), an excellent topping for pasta. Malloreddus are made with water and durum wheat semolina © | Dreamstime.com

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