Italian Island Cooking

Considering that Sardegna is a major island, one might expect fish to play an important part in the region's cuisine. And it does, to a degree - Sardegna's tuna and bottarga, or tuna roe are prized - but fish is not paramount, and this is because Sardinians historically considered the sea to be a source of invaders; they thus turned inland, devoting their energy to agriculture and shepherding.

Consequently traditional Sardinian cuisine features quite a bit of lamb, especially roasted, and pork, in particular porceddu, roast sucking pig, and a tremendous variety of sheep and goat's milk cheese, including Pecorino Sardo, one of the world's great cheeses. But there's more; Sardegna is known for Pane Carasau, a crisp flatbread the shepherds could take with them, and enjoy with cheese, malloreddus, little gnocchi flavored with saffron, maccherones and pillus, respectively twisted macaroni and lasagna, and fregula, pasta blebs used in soups and in a manner akin to cuscus. Traditional pastries also reveal shepherding roots, with cheese and honey.

This isn't to say Sardinians completely turned their backs on the invaders; they sold sea bass bottarga to the Phoenicians, there's a Sardinian variation on buridda, a Ligurian fish stew, and they adopted both the Spanish scapece sweet and sour sauce for fish, which they call scabecciau, and mazzamorru, a bread soup eaten by the sailors of the fleet.

But their cuisine does reflect their independence.

Sardinian recipes on site.