Zichi Bread: what it is and how to make this sardinian recipe

An ancient recipe that transforms bread into a dough with a unique flavor

It’s a simple dish, but its ingredients can be difficult to find. Although they’re few, they’re difficult to replicate. To prepare Zichi bread, you first need to travel to Bonorva, a town of just over three thousand inhabitants in the Logudoro region, bordering Gallura. Find one of the local bakeries that produce the famous local bread: a flatbread that, after air-drying, is then broken by hand into rough pieces.

This not-too-thin, irregularly shaped bread creates a delicious dish, similar to fresh pasta. This is the result of ‘recycling,’ as in ancient times this bread was eaten until it dried out, and to avoid waste, it was cooked and then reused as a main course.

Zichi bread was, and still is, almost always cooked in a mutton and vegetable broth as if it were pasta. Boiled for just a few minutes, the Zichi is then ready to be drained. It will have absorbed all the flavours of the broth and it’s time to season it. While many serve it with just, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a generous sprinkling of grated pecorino, it’s best served with a quick, fresh sauce, like the one made with various cherry tomatoes and generous amounts of freshly picked basil, which is where Zichi bread really shines.

The sauce is simple to make, as are its ingredients: cherry tomatoes cut in half and simmered with oil, a clove of garlic, and plenty of basil – strictly torn by hand, never cut with a knife – added both during cooking and once the sauce is added to the Zichi bread. Because what we should remember about this dish is the distinctive texture of the Zichi in our mouths and the intoxicating aroma of basil on our hands.