The traditional recipe (and tips) for preparing fregola sarda

Discover how to prepare typical Sardinian pasta, perfect with seafood

In Gallura, they call it ‘succu’. Also in nearby Logudoro, the area where in the past they grew the wheat used to produce semolina flour, the main ingredient of this pasta. In other parts of the island, it can either be called ‘fregua’ or ‘fregula’. No matter where you are, as soon as you hear the word ‘fregula’, it is enough to immediately think about Sardinia and about this unusual and very small pasta shape, which is one of the most famous and appreciated traditional Sardinian dishes. This ‘crumb’ is produced by the skilful hands of Sardinian women who mix flour and water inside the ‘canistreddu’ – the typical Sardinian basket – creating thousands of unusually shaped little balls of pasta. The magic of the fregula starts right from its creation. It then continues in the kitchen where it is served with authentic, traditional ingredients such as home-made tomato sauce with fresh basil and a sprinkling of grated pecorino cheese or cooked in fish and seafood broth. Fregula with seafood is one of the dishes which is always present on the menus of restaurants and fish stalls of Gallura, especially during the summer when this dish is further enriched by the abundance and variety of local fish. It can be cooked traditionally like normal pasta in water and salt and then seasoned with a reduced fish sauce or similar to a risotto, directly in the broth, and the sauce made with clams, mussels, squid, cuttlefish, prawns, and scampi. The result is a rich and creamy dish with unique flavours and aromas, which evokes the sea of Sardinia and the countryside with its cultivated fields of Senatore Cappelli wheat.