Sardinia’s regional cuisine is very diverse and varied, ranging from seafood dishes based on fishing products to land dishes, both of peasant and pastoral derivation, game, and the gathering of wild herbs.

Sardinian Seafood Cuisine

In Sardinian seafood cuisine, culinary influences from other areas of Italy can be recognized, such as Pisan and Genoese, but also Catalan. Typical Sardinian seafood dishes include Fregula cun còciula (fregula with clams), Còciulas e Cotzas a sa schiscionera (clams and mussels cooked in a pan), as well as Spaghetti with clams and bottarga and Spaghittus cun arrizzonis (spaghetti with sea urchins). Bottarga di muggine (dried mullet roe) can be consumed in thin strips, dressed with oil, as well as grated on pasta. Catalan-style lobsters are boiled with tomatoes, celery, and onion. Razza in agliata (Ray fish) is an Algherese specialty, boiled and covered in tomato sauce. Seafood dishes can be paired with a Vermentino di Sardegna white wine.

Sardinian Land Cuisine

Sardinian land cuisine is based on very simple ingredients and is very varied from area to area. Among the appetizers, there are pork or wild boar hams, sausages, and cold cuts. “First courses” include Sardinian gnocchetti, flavored with saffron or served with sausage sauce, Culurgiones, dumplings filled with ricotta and mint, Macarrones de busa, a kind of bucatini made with a special elongated iron, Macarrones furriaos, gnocchetti seasoned with very fresh pecorino, melted together with semolina to form a sort of cream. Pasta dishes can be paired, for example, with a Cannonau di Sardegna rosé. Main courses are based on roast meat, but also boiled, stewed, or based on the “fifth quarter”. Porceddu is a suckling pig, cooked on a spit and flavored after cooking with myrtle or rosemary. Roast milk lamb (Anzone) is one of the island’s oldest traditions. Wild boar meat (Sirbone) is traditionally cooked with the carraxu method (in a buried pit). These dishes pair best with a traditional Cannonau di Sardegna red wine.

Bread in the Sardinian Cuisine

Bread has always been at the base of Sardinian cuisine. Among the most famous types are Pane carasau, in very crispy thin disks, which can be consumed dry or slightly wet and rolled. Civàrgiu is a large circular semolina loaf characteristic of the Campidani and southern Sardinia, Cocoi a pitzus is a decorated bread, once produced for special occasions, today always present, Modditzosu (from modditzi, the Sardinian name for the mastic shrub, a common aromatic bush in the Mediterranean maquis providing the scented wood used for cooking) is soft and circular, widespread throughout the island. Bread is the base of dishes like pane frattau, carasau bread with tomato and pecorino, pane a fittas, slices of bread with tomato and pecorino, baked in the oven, or Zuppa Gallurese, slices of bread immersed in broth and covered with pecorino, then baked, hiding the soup, to be paired with a Vermentino di Gallura white wine.

Sweets and Sardinian Cuisine

The best-known desserts of Sardinian regional cuisine are Seadas, thin pastry discs with a fresh pecorino filling, fried and covered with melted honey, Casadinas, small pies filled with fresh cheese flavored with lemon, Pabassinas, cookies with semolina, walnuts, raisins, almonds, or hazelnuts. Desserts can be paired with a Nasco or a Moscato di Cagliari passito.