Sardegna food is varied and diversified, it ranges from roasted meats, bread (carasau is the most known), pasta (famous its fregola) wonderful cheeses (ricotta salata, pecorino pastore, pecorino moliterno, pecorino fioretto) wines, to seafood and land dishes, both of peasant and pastoral derivation, of game, fishing and collection of spontaneous herbs. It is considered part of the Mediterranean diet, a nutritional model proclaimed in 2010 by Unesco among the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

Let’s cook together three of the most famous dishes you can find in this wonderful region.

MUSSELS AND CLAMS WITH SUNDRIED TOMATO AND CAPERS

INGREDIENTS FOR 2 PEOPLE -Mussels – 400 g -Clams – 400 g -Garlic 1 clove -Parsley to taste –Sundried tomatoes, 2 (chopped) –Capers 1 tsp –White wine to taste –Extra virgin olive oil to taste –Salt to taste

HOW TO PREPARE IT

Wash the clams and mussels under running water.

Clean the mussels by scraping the shell and removing the byssus.

Brown the garlic and chopped dried tomatoes in a large pan, add the desalted capers, mussels and clams and blend with the wine.

Filter the cooking sauce and serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

CULURGIONES

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE –00 flour 300 g -Water 290 g -Durum wheat semolina flour, 200 g -Extra virgin olive oil about 15 g -Salt up to taste FOR THE STUFFING -Yellow flesh potatoes 1 kg –Pecorino 100 g –Extra virgin olive oil 80 g -1 clove garlic -Mint 14 leaves –Salt up to taste -Black pepper to taste TO SEASON Tomato puree 500 g Extra virgin olive oil 30 Basil 3 leaves 1 clove garlic Salt up to taste

HOW TO PREPARE IT

Boil the potatoes in water with the peel until soft.

Peel the potatoes and mash them with a ricer in a large container. Add the oil, the minced garlic and the chopped mint.

Add the cheese mixture and stir well. Let the mix rest.

Meantime, work the flour and the semolina with the water, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of oil (and an optional egg white) until it is elastic.

At this point, use the machine to roll the dough in a thin layer, like you would do to make lasagna sheets. Cut out from the sheets 6cm diameter discs for each culurgione.

Put a spoonful of potato dough with the help of a teaspoon, fold like a half-moon, close with the ends of the fingers, thumb and index finger pinching left and right. Taste the filling, so you know if something is missing.

Cook the culurgiones in salted water for about 5 minutes. When ready, pick them up from the pot with a skimmer. Serve them with lots of pecorino cheese or a fresh tomato and basil sauce.

PARAFRITTUS

INGREDIENTS FOR 15 -Sugar, 100 g –Eggs, 4 –Flour, 1 kg -Milk, 1/2 l –Fresh yeast, 60 g -Lard, 100 g -1 lemon zest -2 Orange, grated zest and juice -Brandy to taste

HOW TO PREPARE IT

In a container pour the sugar with the eggs, start kneading everything by hand, then add the flour and the milk in which you have dissolved the brewer’s yeast.

Put the lard, the grated rind of the lemon, the oranges and the juice of the oranges only, and finally the brandy.

Knead the dough for a good 10 minutes, remember that the more you knead the better the results, then wrap the bowl with a cloth and a warm blanket over it, and let it rise for about 2 and a half hours, in a warm place if you have a fireplace even better you place it on a chair in front of it.

After the first leavening, take pieces of dough a little at a time, roll them out with a rolling pin with a thickness of about 2 cm and create doughnuts with the hole in the centre, put them on top of other dishcloths placed on a table, where you have previously put some flour and let them rise for another hour.

Heat plenty of oil and start frying, using a wooden ladle you have to brown them on one side and then on the other, finally drain them on absorbent paper, and still hot pass them in sugar.

BUON APPETITO!