Tour of Sardinia part 2: Sardinian diner

As one of my latest trip I went to visit the Italian Island Sardinia.
Sardinians actually do not consider themselves Italians at all. They are Sardinians.

For ages this island has been robbed and raped by different population and civilisations.
The original Sardinians belong to to populations of nuraghi that were extinct by Romans.
Somewhat I still think that Romans got mixed with some of those Nuraghi people, and that population is still alive and kicking.

There are archeological fundings that show how Nuraghi population had the peak of their hight at 160cm. It also seems that in the island lived an other population called giants. Next to any man that is 160cm tall a basket ball player may look like a giant.

photo by quisardegna.org

Any how this island has a heavenly kitchen and various labels of wine. I took some of it at home and had a diner party that has a theme Sardinia. And here is what we had for diner.
As a starter I had some courgette and fennel with "bottarga" that stands for "caviar"; Bottarga of tuna.

Fennel with bottarga

Accompaigned with Sardinian bread called Carasau. It is dry and crispy, and it is served with some Sardinian olive oil in it.
As a main course I served fregole pasta and arselle clams. I studied the recipe on youtube.
And then we had this plate of various Sardinian cheese, sausage and ham of wild swine.
I brought the Sardinian biscuits with me, but my son ate them all during my absence, so all I could find that possibly looks similar was this biscuit with a fig filling in it.

photo by lakasa.it

We also drink some wine; Vermentino di Gallura and Cannonau.
Cannonau is the typical wine of the Island of Nuraghi that is close to Cagliari. Cannonau is actually the most well known wine from Sardinia. It is a fruity red wine that suits well most dishes from starters to main course. It is one of the wines I prefer because it is easy to give as a gift. It really suits at every diner table.
Vermentino di Gallura explains itself. Gallura is the area of north east of Sardinia just south of the island of Corsica that used to be Italian, but was gift to France as a gift. Gallura has a rocky soil. And its soil gives also the flavour to this particular white wine. It is granite rock and one of the hardest if not the hardest to find in this planet. Most obelisks and monuments, like the one in the Suez Canal are done by Sardinian granite.
I found an interesting mineral museum at the Island of Caprera, just next to Maddalena Island.

photo by I Love Costa

My culinary trip was basically concentrated on two areas of Sardinia; the south-west and north-east.
South-west is the Area of Cagliari, that to me is a pleasant town. It has 120.000 inhabitants but it looks as big and vivid as Thessaloniki, Greece. People are outgoing and there are many young people due to the university.
Cagliari actually offers more than they may be able to advertise.
Within just 30 minutes of taxi from the airport or an hour with two local bus services, it is possible to reach the beach Poetto, and admire "the devils sable" Sella del diavolo as Cagliari people call the rock. There is a legend about this Rock I am not going to tell, because it is interesting to learn about it once at Cagliari. 

Sella del Diavolo seen from Mount Urbano

Visit the salt pools and admire flamingos, visit Nuraghi, or just hang on in the down town of Cagliari. Some of my fiends fly over to Cagliari for just one day. They take their swim suit, get to Poetto and hang in the downtown for the afternoon before flying back home to Milan. 

photo by studiainitalia.com 

Cagliari has this lovely market to visit with a huge fish market and every vegetable there is to find in this island. My discovery were these mushrooms called "ovuli", because they look a bit like eggs while closed. And just as Funghi Porcini, Ovuli are to eaten raw, with some pecorino sardo cheese. 

Market at Cagliari

I also advice a visit to Cagliari's archeological museum. I visited before visiting Nuraghi, but is should be done other way around. In that way it gives the idea of evolution in Sardinia and how Nuraghi people actually lived. 

bronse statues of the nuraghi period at the archeological museum

The other part; north-east is equally amazing, due to its rock and beautiful small towns, such as Santa Teresa Gallura that could have been the old Roman town called Tibula. Its granite has been used to build the Pisa Cathedral, and some parts of the Rome's Pantheon.

The name was given by the king Vittorio Emanuele I as honour to his wife Maria Teresa d'Asburgo Este. I am totally astonished of the beauty of the rocks at Capo Testa, due to the erasion that wind and sea salt has done to them. 

dinosaur head rock at capo testa

Following the road towards the Archipelago of Maddalena passing by vineyards. At the city of Palau I needed to take a ferry and get to the island of Maddalena. Giuseppe Garibaldi moved to Caprera Island once he retired from politics. And I might just to the very same. Maddalena looks like an ideal place to sit down and write my travel blog. Considering that the airport of Olbia is just one hour driving from the harbour of Palau.

the grave stone of Giuseppe Garibaldi at Caprera 

I found the visit at the old house of Garibaldi and his story really interesting. His father was an engineer as far as I remember, and he had developed really genius problem solving that even today may look modern. A bit like my favourite architect Gaudi. 

Costa Smeralda is the most exclusive area

of Sardinia. It offers luxurious villas, hotels and yacht harbours. In an old fashion Sardinian law, also women were to inherit. But only men got mainland because it was useful for the agriculture. Women inherit mostly cost line. This coastline area was indeed inherit by a Sardinian woman, who made business selling it to Aga Khan. He then developed the finest vacation resort area thinking of the jet set of the show business. I must say that I felt really fancy staying in this beautiful hotel with such a view. 

Hotel Balocco, Porto Cervo

It took us 8 days to do it all and we hired a car for 5 days. We stayed first 3 nights at Cagliari, then one at Oristano, two days in Alghero, and finally two nights at Porto Cervo, Costa Smeralda. 

Once we left Cagliari airport by car, we headed to the town called Iglesias. From there along the cost line passing by a beautiful beach called Piscinas, and headed towards Oristano to get some rest. From Oristano we drove along Tinnura to see the Murales, and to the town of Bosa, so that for the evening we found ourselves in the swimming pool in our hotel at Alghero. We visited also the National Park Capo Caccia, and drove to Stintino, to admire the view towards the National Park of the Island of Asinara. 

From Alghero we headed through Sassari and Castelsardo towards north-east. 

elephant rock near Castelsardo

I am still missing the whole eastern part from north to south. That will be the target to my next Sardinian trip. 

Let me know wether you want to be part of it, by leaving a comment down below.