SARDINIAN FOOD: MEDITERRANEAN CULTURAL ESSENCE

Pane Carasau

Today, Tina Picotes and her friends want to talk about Sardinian food, which is wonderful and full of cultural influences. The friends have been tasting some of the most typical Sardinian dishes, and they have discovered how rich is Mediterranean food and every one of its cultures.

Before tasting these wonderful dishes, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 8).

More information: Past Simple (Regular Verbs) Negative & Questions

Sardinia's rich and varied history has made it an incomparable food destination, with influences stretching back 2,500 years. Learn more about the food and drink of this beautiful Mediterranean paradise.

We always think of Sardinia as being Italian, and it technically is, but the island is a far stretch across the Tyrrhenian Sea from the Italian mainland, so much so that it is as close to Tunis as it is to Rome, and much closer to the French island of Corsica. 

Tallutzas with prawn sauce and wedge clams

As the second-largest island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia has always been coveted, and the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Catalans and Spanish have all called the island home over the last two millennia. Even before that, the island was home to the Nuragic peoples, one of Europe’s oldest civilizations.

As a result, modern day Sardinia is a one-of-a-kind conflation of cultures, with a unique food scene to match. The Emerald Coast in the northeast of the island is a particularly popular destination, home to beautiful old fishing towns like Santa Teresa Gallura, and some of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful coastlines. Wherever you go, you’ll find a rich tapestry of influences, from the Catalan-inspired Alghero on the west coast to the ancient and historic capital of Casteddu/Cagliari in the south.

Sardinia is already famous as the home of bottarga, fregola and the infamous Casu Marzu cheese, but the island has so much more to offer for gastronomic adventurers. Read on for some more Sardinian specialities to watch out for when you visit.

More information: Sardegna Turismo

Bottarga

Bottarga is emblematic of Sardinia’s special and unique food traditions. Grey mullet or tuna roe is dried, cured and pressed into a block of delicious, umami goodness, and usually grated over pasta or served in thin slices as a starter. Although it’s become incredibly popular in modern European cuisine, the majority of top-quality bottarga stays on the island, so keep an eye out for it whilst you’re there.

Bread

Sardinia is known for its many varieties of bread, ranging from simple rustic loaves to intricately decorated and shaped coccio which are baked for special occasions. The wheat grown on the island is regarded as the best in Italy, and was even exported by the Romans across the empire.

Cheeses

Bottarga

Sardinia has a special affinity with cheeses, perhaps in part due to its proximity with the French-governed island of Corsica to the north. The island produces lots of sheep’s cheeses, with fresh whey made into ricotta, whilst curds are moulded into pecorino. Most famous of all is Casu Marzu, a Sardinian pecorino that contains live maggots. Though the legal status of the cheese is questionable, you won’t find it on sale in shops anywhere in Sardinia or the world, it’s still considered a great delicacy by the locals.

Seafood

Great seafood is all about freshness, and Sardinia’s access to the bounty of the Mediterranean makes it a paradise for seafood lovers. Sardinian fishermen bring home lots of sardines, of course, as well as swordfish, tuna, lobster, clams, and a bounty of other fish and shellfish. Keep a special look out for sea urchins too, a Mediterranean delicacy with the strong saline flavour of the sea.

Meat

If seafood isn’t your thing, don’t fret, Sardinians love their meat too. There are more than four million sheep in Sardinia, so lamb and mutton are both prominent if you head a bit further inland, but goat is popular on the island too, as are pigs. Younger animals are often eaten in simple ways, grilled over open fires, whilst older animals end up as delicious charcuterie like proscuitto, pancetta and coppa.

Fregola con le arselle

Pompia

A unique and unusual citrus fruit native to Sardinia. It has a pleasant sour and bitter flavour, not unlike a grapefruit. It can be larger with a much thicker, more wrinkled skin. It only grows in citrus groves around the town of Siniscola, where it is eaten with lashings of honey, or used it to make liqueur.

Maialino arrosto

As it is in many cultures across the globe, suckling pig is a treasured delicacy in Sardinia, and locals prepare it in their own signature style. Myrtle and juniper are both plentiful on the island, you’ll find them frequently used in Sardinian dishes, and they give a beautiful smokey, menthol aroma to the suckling pig, which is completely wrapped in myrtle leaves before being slow-cooked over juniper wood until melting and tender.

Fregola

It looks like giant couscous, but fregola is actually semolina pasta dough, hand-rolled into little balls and toasted in an oven to give a nice nutty flavour and chewy texture. Although it’s often used in traditional Italian pasta dishes, you’ll find it in a whole host of salads, soups and stews too. Seafood fregola with saffron is Sardinian through and through, a must-try if you’re on the island.

Pane carasau

Also known as carta di musica, literally, music paper, pane carasau was originally found preserved among the remains of Sardinia’s ancient Nuragic civilization, meaning it has been eaten on the island for at least 3,000 years. Baked durum wheat flatbread is separated into two sheets and baked again to create this thin, crispy delicacy. Sardinians eat pane carasau with almost anything, so you’ll find it a welcome presence at almost every meal you eat on the island. The most famous dish made from it, however, is pane frattau, which sees the bread topped with a tomato sauce and a poached egg.

Panadas

Panadas are Sardinian pies, originating from the small town of Assemini, just outside Cagliari. These days the fillings can vary hugely, you’ll find vegetarian and cheese panadas are fairly common, as well as beef and pork, but the most traditional pies have a lamb filling inside, which is fried then baked inside the pastry. If you’re lucky, you might even find very traditional eel panadas around, although they’re the least common of the lot.

Malloreddus

Malloreddus with sausage and fennel ragu

Saffron is very popular in Sardinia thanks to the island’s Catalan and Arabian heritage.

The luxurious, heady spice is used in a wide variety of dishes, but particularly in malloreddus, a small gnocchi or gnocchetti, typical of Sardinia, made with durum wheat flour, water and a touch of ground saffron. It’s often served as malloreddus alla campidanese, where the little gnocchetti are covered in a delicious sausage and tomato ragù, and sprinkled liberally with pecorino cheese.

Seadas

Even when you’ve eaten more than your share of incredible pasta, seafood and roasted meats, there’s always a bit of room for seadas. These gorgeous little dough parcels are deep-fried and drizzled with honey, and the crispy pastry gives way to a soft filling of fresh pecorino. They’re often finished with a bittersweet grating of orange peel, too. Delicious.

Pardulas

These curious little tarts are traditionally associated with Easter, although you can find them year-round in Sardinia's bakeries today. Filled with ricotta, citrus peel and saffron, the filling is a soft, moist sponge bursting with flavour.

Culurgiones

This is Sardinia's most beloved stuffed pasta, hailing from Ogliastra in east Sardinia. A simple dough is made from flour and semolina, before being stuffed with mashed potatoes, grated Pecorino Sardo or Fiore Sardo and fresh mint. They're robust, filling, and perfect for keeping the island's hungry shepherds well-fed. The pasta is shaped to represent an ear of wheat.

More information: Food Republic

Sardinia has to have some of the best seafood on the planet.

I'm a sea urchin freak, and Sardinia's are some of the best I've had.

Andrew Zimmern

CASTEDDU DE CALLARIS: THE CAPITAL OF SARDÌNNIA

Basilica di San Saturnino, Casteddu/Cagliari

Today, The Grandma is visiting Casteddu de Callaris (Càller for her) or Cagliari the capital of Sardìnnia with her friends.

All of them are enjoying a wonderful day in this amazing city where you can live the essence of the Mediterranean culture and the result of a land that has been an interesting home for several cultures. The friends are discovering every important place of the city while they are waiting the arrival of the last member of the group, Tonyi Tamaki, who arrives today to the island.

Before visiting the city, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 4).

More information: Present Continuous Affirmative

Casteddu in Sardinian, Cagliari in Italian, and Càller in Catalan, is an Sardinian municipality and the capital of Sardinia. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. Cagliari is the largest city on the island of Sardinia.

Joseph visits the Roman Amphitheatre, Casteddu

An ancient city with a long history, Cagliari has seen the rule of several civilizations. Under the buildings of the modern city there is a continuous stratification attesting to human settlement over the course of some five thousand years, from the Neolithic to today.

Historical sites include the prehistoric Domus de Janas, very damaged by cave activity, a large Carthaginian era necropolis, a Roman era amphitheatre, a Byzantine basilica, three Pisan-era towers and a strong system of fortification that made the town the core of Spanish Habsburg imperial power in the western Mediterranean Sea. Its natural resources have always been its sheltered harbour, the often powerfully fortified hill of Castel di Castro, the modern Casteddu, the salt from its lagoons, and, from the hinterland, wheat from the Campidano plain and silver and other ores from the Iglesiente mines.

More information: Dooid

Cagliari was the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1324 to 1848, when Turin became the formal capital of the kingdom, which in 1861 became the Kingdom of Italy. Today the city is a regional cultural, educational, political and artistic centre, known for its diverse Art Nouveau architecture and several monuments. It is also Sardinia's economic and industrial hub, having one of the biggest ports in the Mediterranean Sea, an international airport, and the 106th highest income level in Italy, comparable to that of several northern Italian cities.

It is also the seat of the University of Cagliari, founded in 1607, and of the Primate Roman Catholic archdiocese of Sardinia, since the 5th century AD.

Claire visits the Bastione San Remy, Casteddu

The Cagliari area has been inhabited since the Neolithic. It occupies a favourable position between the sea and a fertile plain and is surrounded by two marshes, which provides defence against attacks from the inland.

There are high mountains nearby, to which people could evacuate if the settlement had to be given up and relics of prehistoric inhabitants in the hill of Monte Claro and in Cape Sant'Elia.

Krly was established around the 8th/7th century BC as one of a string of Phoenician colonies in Sardinia, including Tharros. Its founding is linked to its position along communication routes with Africa as well as to its excellent port. The Phoenician settlement was located in the Stagno di Santa Gilla, west of the present centre of Cagliari. This was also the site of the Roman Portus Scipio, and when Arab pirates raided the area in the 8th century it became the refuge for people fleeing from the city. Other Phoenician settlements have been found at Cape Sant'Elia.

More Information: Sardi

In the late 6th century BC Carthage took control of part of Sardinia, and Cagliari grew substantially under their domination, as testified by the large Tuvixeddu necropolis and other remains. Cagliari was a fortified settlement in what is now the modern Marina quarter, with an annexed holy area in the modern Stampace.

Sardinia and Cagliari came under Roman rule in 238 BC, shortly after the First Punic War, when the Romans defeated the Carthaginians. No mention of it is found on the occasion of the Roman conquest of the island, but during the Second Punic War it was the headquarters of the praetor, Titus Manlius Torquatus, from whence he conducted his operations against Hampsicora and the Carthaginians. At other times it was also the Romans' chief naval station on the island, and the residence of the praetor.

Tina walks across the streets of Casteddu

Subsequently, ruled by the Vandals and then part of the Byzantine Empire, Cagliari became the capital of a gradually independent Judgedom.

However, there is some evidence that during this period of independence from external rule, the city was deserted because it was too exposed to attacks by Moorish pirates coming from north Africa and Spain. Apparently many people left Caralis and founded a new town named Santa Igia in an area close to the Santa Gilla swamp to the west of Cagliari, but relatively distant from the sea.

During the 11th century, the Republic of Pisa began to extend its political influence over the Judgedom of Cagliari. Pisa and the maritime republic of Genoa had a keen interest in Sardinia because it was a perfect strategic base for controlling the commercial routes between Italy and North Africa.

More information: Cagliari Turismo

In the second decade of the 14th century the Crown of Aragon conquered Sardinia after a series of battles against the Pisans. During the siege of Castel di Castro (1324-1326), the Aragonese, led by the infant Alfonso, built a stronghold on a more southern hill, that of Bonaria.

When the fortified city was finally conquered by the Catalan-Aragonese army, Castel di Castro, Castel de Càller or simply Càller in Catalan, became the administrative capital of the newborn Kingdom of Sardinia, one of the many kingdoms forming the Crown of Aragon, which later came under the rule of the Spanish Empire.

After the expulsion of the Tuscans, the Castello district was repopulated by the Catalan settlers of Bonaria while the indigenous population was, as in the past, concentrated in Stampace and Villanova.

The Grandma & Claire contemplate the Duomo

In 1718, after a brief rule by the Austrian Habsburgs, Cagliari and Sardinia came under the House of Savoy. As rulers of Sardinia, the Savoys took the title of kings of the Sardinian kingdom.

During the Savoyard Era, until 1848, the institutions of the Sardinian kingdom remained unchanged, but with the Perfect Fusion in that year, all the possessions of the House of Savoy House, comprising Savoy, Nice, now part of France, Piedmont and from 1815 Liguria, were merged into a unitary state.

Although Sardinian by name, the kingdom had its parliament in Turin, where the Savoys resided, and its members were mainly aristocrats from Piedmont or the mainland.

In the late 18th century during the Napoleonic wars France tried to conquer Cagliari because of its strategic role in the Mediterranean sea, in the Expédition de Sardaigne.

More information: Lonely Planet

Starting in the 1870s, in the wake of the unification of Italy, the city experienced a century of rapid growth. Many buildings were erected by the end of the 19th century during the term of office of mayor Ottone Bacaredda. 

Numerous buildings combined influences from Art Nouveau together with the traditional Sardinian taste for floral decoration; an example is the white marble City Hall near the port. Bacaredda is also known for his strong repression of one of the earliest worker strikes at the beginning of the 20th century.

During the Second World War Cagliari was heavily bombed by the Allies in February 1943. In order to escape from the danger of bombardments and difficult living conditions, many people were evacuated from the city into the countryside. In total the victims of the bombings were more than 2000 and about 80% of the buildings were damaged. The city received the Gold Medal of Military Valour.

After the Italian armistice with the Allies in September 1943, the German Army took control of Cagliari and the island, but soon retreated peacefully in order to reinforce their positions in mainland Italy. The American Army then took control of Cagliari. Airports near the city, Elmas, Monserrato, Decimomannu (currently a NATO airbase) were used by Allied aircraft to fly to North Africa or mainland Italy and Sicily.

More information: The Independent

Sardinia is beautiful. The people were so friendly, 

and the food was incredible!
 

Tia Mowry

1297: THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF SARDINIA

Kingdom of Sardinia-House of Hohenstaufen
1238-1272

The Grandma and her friends are enjoying Sardinian history. Today, they are reading about the most splendorous age of this land, when Sardinia was an independent Kingdom. Sardinia is one of the ancient European nations with a long and interesting History to discover and enjoy.

Before reading about the influence of the House of Barcelona firstly, the Aragonese Crown later and the years of independence, The Grandma has been also studying a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 3).

More information: Present Simple Negative & Questions

The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Southern Europe which existed from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the predecessor state of the Kingdom of Italy.

The kingdom initially consisted of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, sovereignty over both of which was claimed by the Papacy, which granted them as a fief, the regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae to King James II of Aragon in 1297.

In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII, intervening between the Houses of Anjou and Aragon, established on paper a Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae that would be a fief of the Papacy. Then, ignoring the indigenous states which already existed, the Pope offered his newly invented fief to James II of Aragon, promising him papal support should he wish to conquer Pisan Sardinia in exchange for Sicily. 

House of Barcelona 1297-1410

In 1323 James II formed an alliance with Hugh II of Arborea and, following a military campaign which lasted a year or so, occupied the Pisan territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the city of Sassari, claiming the territory as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica.

Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia and established de facto their de jure authority.

Although the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica could be said to have started as a questionable and extraordinary de jure state in 1297, its de facto existence began in 1324 when, called by their allies of the Giudicato di Arborea in the course of war with the Republic of Pisa, James II seized the Pisan territories in the former states of Cagliari and Gallura and asserted his papally approved title.

More information: Britannica

In 1347 CE Aragon made war on landlords of the Doria House and the Malaspina House, who were citizens of the Republic of Genoa, which controlled most of the lands of the former Logudoro state in north-western Sardinia, including the city of Alghero and the semiautonomous Republic of Sassari, and added them to its direct domains.

The Giudicato of Arborea, the only Sardinian state that remained independent of foreign domination, proved far more difficult to subdue. Threatened by the Aragonese claims of suzerainty and consolidation of the rest of the island, in 1353 Arborea, under the leadership of Marianus IV, started the conquest of the remaining Sardinian territories, which formed the Kingdom of Sardinia. 

Kingdom of Sardinia under the Crown of Aragon

In 1368 an Arborean offensive succeeded in nearly driving the Aragonese from the island, reducing the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica to just the port cities of Cagliari and Alghero and incorporating everything else into their own kingdom. 

A peace treaty returned the Aragonese their previous possessions in 1388, but tensions continued and 1382 CE the Arborean army led by Brancaleone Doria again swept the most of the island into Arborean rule. This situation lasted until 1409 when the army of the giudicato of Arborea suffered a heavy defeat by the Aragonese army in the Battle of Sanluri.

After the sale of the remaining territories for 100,000 gold florins to the giudicato of Arborea in 1420, the Kingdom of Sardinia extended throughout the island, except for the city of Castelsardo, at that time called Casteldoria or Castelgenovese, which had been stolen from the Doria in 1448. The subduing of Sardinia having taken a century, Corsica, which had never been wrestled from the Genoese, was dropped from the formal title of the Kingdom.

More information: WikiVisually

 
In 1420, after the Sardinian-Catalan War, the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire.

In 1353 Arborea waged war on Aragon. The Crown of Aragon did not reduce the last of the giudicati, indigenous kingdoms of Sardinia, until 1420. The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica retained its separate character as part of the Crown of Aragon and was not merely incorporated into the Kingdom of Aragon.

At the time of his struggles with Arborea, Peter IV of Aragon granted an autonomous legislature to the Kingdom and its legal traditions. The Kingdom was governed in the king's name by a Viceroy. 

House of Trastámara, 1412-1555

In 1420, Alfonso V of Aragon, king of Sicily and heir to Aragon, bought the remaining territories for 100,000 gold florins of the Giudicato of Arborea in the 1420 from the last giudice William III of Narbonne and the Kingdom of Sardinia extended throughout the island, except for the city of Castelsardo, at that time called Casteldoria or Castelgenovese that was stolen from the Doria in 1448, and renamed Castillo Aragonés (Aragonese Castle).

Corsica, which had never been conquered, was dropped from the formal title and Sardinia passed with the Crown of Aragon. The defeat of the local kingdoms, communes and signorie, the firm Aragonese rule, the introduction of a sterile feudalism, as well as the discovery of the Americas, provoked an unstoppable decline of the Kingdom of Sardinia. 

A short period of uprisings occurred under the local noble Leonardo Alagon, marquess of Oristano, who defended his territories against the Viceroy Nicolò Carroz and managed to defeat the viceroy's army in the 1470s, but was later crushed at the Battle of Macomer in 1478, ending any further revolts in the island. The unceasing attacks from north African pirates and a series of plagues (in 1582, 1652 and 1655) further worsened the situation.

More information: History of Royal Woman

In 1720 it was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. The Kingdom of Sardinia came to be progressively identified with the states ruled by the main branch of the House of Savoy, which included, besides Savoy and Aosta, dynastic possessions since the 11th century, the Principality of Piedmont, a possession built up in the 13th century, and the County of Nice, a possession since 1388. While in theory the traditional capital of the island of Sardinia and seat of its viceroys was Cagliari, the Piedmontese city of Turin was the capital of Savoy.

Habsburg, Bourbon, Savoy and Carignano, 1516-1861

When the mainland domains of the House of Savoy were occupied and eventually annexed by Napoleonic France, the king of Sardinia made his permanent residence on the island for the first time in its history. The Congress of Vienna (1814–15), which restructured Europe after Napoleon's defeat, returned to Savoy its mainland possessions and augmented them with Liguria, taken from the Republic of Genoa. In 1847–48, in a perfect fusion, the various Savoyard states were unified under one legal system, with the capital in Turin, and granted a constitution, the Statuto Albertino.

There followed the annexation of Lombardy (1859), the central Italian states and the Two Sicilies (1860), Venetia (1866), and the Papal States (1870). On 17 March 1861, to more accurately reflect its new geographic extent, the Kingdom of Sardinia changed its name to the Kingdom of Italy, and its capital was eventually moved first to Florence and then to Rome.

More information: Department of State of the USA-Office of Historian

People inevitably think of themselves as Sardinian first 

and Italian second (or sometimes even third, after European). 

A book written once about Sardinia was entitled  

The Unconquered Island, and it's true. 

Invaded and exploited it has been, yes, but not conquered.

Dana Facaros