When in Sardinia

Step off the ferry or plane and within a day you are eating food with no plausible equivalent anywhere else in Italy, made by people who learned from their grandmothers, who learned from theirs. The island's isolation, long considered a disadvantage, turns out to be the thing that preserved its culinary identity almost entirely intact. Eating well in Sardinia does not require much effort. Eating well and understanding what you're eating is a different matter, and worth pursuing.These are the things worth eating, and where possible, worth making.

Culurgiones. Each one is sealed by hand using a technique called sa spighitta, a tiny repeating pleat that runs along the spine of the pasta like a wheat spike, because that is exactly what it is meant to resemble. The filling is typically potato, mint, and pecorino, finished with a plain tomato sauce. Creamy, herby, and more satisfying than anything that simple has any right to be. On our Sardinian tour we made them at Domu Antiga, a lovingly restored 19th-century farmhouse in the village of Gergei, run by father-and-son team Arnaldo and Samuel. Samuel's mother Maria cooks suppers that change with whatever the season offers, and the whole property has the quality of a place that has been quietly loved for a very long time. You cook in a proper kitchen, eat at a long table, and leave feeling like you were briefly part of the family. The culurgiones we made and ate there remain one of my most vivid food memories from the island.

Filindeu. Possibly the rarest pasta in Italy, and one of the most quietly astonishing things I have watched another person do with their hands. The tradition is currently held by only two or three women in Sardinia, one of them being Paola Abraini from Nuoro. The dough is pulled seven times to produce apparently 256 strands, each roughly the width of a human hair, then laid in three crossed layers across a wooden disc to dry in the sun before being cooked in mutton broth with fresh pecorino. Paola came to work with our group during our Sardinian tour. Watching her was one of those moments where you understand you are seeing something that very nearly disappeared from the world. We tried to replicate it, we laughed a lot and Paola was extremely patient! It was worth the effort. 

Pane carasau. Order it at every meal and do not apologise for it. This twice-baked flatbread has been on Sardinian tables forever and once you've made it yourself, you understand why it never left. We made it with Simonetta Bazzu at her stazzo in the ancient Gallura hamlet of Battista. A law graduate who studied in Milan and travelled widely before coming home, she founded Vittoria Arimani in 2019 as a way of keeping the island's food traditions alive, sharing them with anyone willing to show up with their sleeves rolled and ready to knead. Her granite farmhouse kitchen is exactly the right setting, it has as much history as the bread we are about to make. The bread comes out of the wood fired oven, all puffed and golden. It quickly deflates as you split it open and stack ready for lunch. Simonetta’s passion is contagious and somewhere in the middle of dough rolling, you stop thinking, become present and let the day be what the day will be. Nothing else really matters, that is the gift she brings.

Fregula. Small, hand-formed pearls of semolina, toasted until nutty and golden, served with vongole or any delicious fresh seafood, in a saffron-scented broth. It looks like couscous. Do not say that to a Sardinian.

Vermentino di Gallura. If Cannonau is the wine of the island's interior, Vermentino is the wine of its north. Gallura produces the only Vermentino in the world to hold a DOCG designation, Italy's highest classification, and the granite soils here give it a mineral quality you won't find anywhere else. Tenute Olbios, run by owner and winemaker Daniela Pinna on the outskirts of Olbia, faces east toward the sea and the island of Tavolara. Her flagship, the Lupus in Fabula Superiore, is the one to look for: aromatic and full-flavoured, with a slightly bitter finish that tells you it's the real thing. We visited Daniela on tour, tasted through her range in the tasting room looking out over the vines, and left with a much better understanding of what Sardinian white wine can be.

Cannonau. The red wine of the Nuoro region and, by most accounts, the wine most deeply woven into Sardinian life. Full-bodied, ruby red, rich with cherry and myrtle, and reportedly containing three times the flavonoids of most other reds, which may partly explain why Sardinia has one of the highest concentrations of centenarians anywhere in the world. The finest expressions come from the Nuoro province, particularly the areas of Oliena and Mamoiada. If you want a single producer to seek out, the wines from Giuseppe Sedilesu in Mamoiada are the benchmark: old vines, granite soils, and nothing hidden. When someone pours you a glass anywhere on the island, try the Sardinian toast rather than the Italian one: a kent'annos. May you live to 100.

Bottarga di Muggine. While this is not my favourite Sardinian treat, when in Rome! Known as the Golden Caviar of Sardinia, this uniquely cured grey mullet roe from the Cabras Lagoon can bring the most delicious salty, briny umami flavour to any dish. Shaved over warm pasta is a great way to try it. Can’t get enough of it Giovanni Pilu is producing here in Australia, so you can always order it online or dine in one his restaurants, Pilu or Flaminia.