Sardinian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Ingredients

• 3 kg suckling pig, or bone in pork shoulder with the skin on
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for basting
• 2 tbsp coarse sea salt
• 1 small bunch fresh myrtle, or 6 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 6 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, cracked
• 1 lemon, halved
• 250 ml dry white wine, Vermentino if you can find it
• 1 kg small potatoes, halved (optional, for the roasting pan)

Method

1. The day before, pat the skin completely dry, rub the salt all over and rest the meat uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. Dry skin is what crackles.
2. Bring the meat to room temperature. Heat the oven to 150C. Rub the meat with olive oil, cracked pepper and the crushed garlic.
3. Scatter the potatoes in a deep pan, pour in the wine, and set the meat on a rack above them. Tuck the myrtle and rosemary underneath so the smoke of the herbs rises into the skin.
4. Roast slowly for about 3 hours, basting every 40 minutes with the pan juices and a little fresh olive oil.
5. Raise the oven to 230C and roast 20 to 25 minutes more, watching closely, until the skin blisters and turns deep gold.
6. Squeeze the lemon over the meat, lay a few myrtle branches on top and rest it, loosely covered, for 25 minutes.
7. Carve at the table and serve with the potatoes and every last spoonful of pan juices.

Ingredients

• 400 g spaghetti
• 60 g bottarga di muggine (cured mullet roe), half finely grated, half shaved
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 small pinch dried chili flakes
• Zest of 1 lemon, plus a small squeeze of juice
• 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• Sea salt, used sparingly (bottarga carries its own salt)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ladle of reserved pasta cooking water

Method

1. Cook the spaghetti in lightly salted boiling water until just short of al dente.
2. Meanwhile, warm the olive oil in a wide pan with the garlic and chili over low heat. Let the garlic soften and perfume the oil without taking color.
3. Reserve a ladle of the cooking water, then drain the pasta.
4. Off the heat, tumble the spaghetti into the pan with a splash of the reserved water and the grated bottarga. Toss until the oil, water and roe become a silky coat on every strand.
5. Add the lemon zest, the small squeeze of juice, the parsley and a turn of pepper. Toss once more and taste before adding any salt.
6. Plate, crown with the shaved bottarga and serve immediately, while the steam still carries the scent of the sea.

Ingredients

• 8 small or 4 large globe artichokes
• 1 lemon, for the trimming water
• 90 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 generous handful flat leaf parsley, stems and leaves chopped separately
• 120 ml dry white wine
• 150 ml water or light vegetable broth
• 2 waxy potatoes, quartered (optional, the classic addition)
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Shaved pecorino sardo, to finish

Method

1. Squeeze the lemon into a bowl of cold water. Trim the artichokes down to their pale hearts, halve or quarter them, and drop each piece into the lemon water as you go.
2. Warm the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium low heat. Add the garlic and the parsley stems and cook gently until fragrant.
3. Drain the artichokes, add them to the pot with the potatoes if using, and turn everything until glossed with oil. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour in the wine, let it bubble for a minute, then add the water or broth. Cover and braise gently for 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Uncover and simmer a few minutes more, until the liquid has reduced to a spoonable glaze and a knife meets no resistance.
6. Shower with the parsley leaves, finish with shaved pecorino and a thread of fresh olive oil, and serve warm rather than hot.

Ingredients

• 150 g dried borlotti beans, soaked overnight
• 150 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 120 g fregola, or pearl barley
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery stick, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• 1 bunch chard or black kale, cut into ribbons
• 1 pecorino sardo rind, plus 60 g grated pecorino to serve
• Sea salt and black pepper

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in your largest pot and sweat the onion, carrot, celery and garlic slowly, without color, for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the drained beans and chickpeas, the tomatoes, the pecorino rind and enough water to cover everything by three fingers.
3. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, partly covered, for about 1 hour, until the legumes are tender. Salt only in the last half hour.
4. Stir in the fregola and the greens and simmer 12 to 15 minutes more, adding a little water if the pot grows too thick to stir easily.
5. Fish out the rind, taste, and season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
6. Ladle into deep bowls and finish each with grated pecorino and a slow spiral of olive oil.

Ingredients

• 400 g fine semolina flour (semola rimacinata)
• 100 g strong white bread flour
• 7 g fresh yeast, or 3 g dry yeast
• 320 ml warm water
• 8 g fine sea salt
• Extra semolina, for dusting
• Extra virgin olive oil, for brushing
• Flaky sea salt, for the guttiau finish
• 1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked (optional)

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Mix both flours with the salt, add the water and knead 10 minutes to a smooth, supple dough.
2. Cover and rest in a warm corner for 1 hour, until visibly risen.
3. Divide into 8 balls, cover with a cloth and rest 30 minutes more.
4. Set a baking stone or upturned tray in the oven and heat it to 240C. Roll each ball on semolina into a round as thin as you can manage, almost transparent.
5. Slide one round at a time onto the hot stone. In about a minute it should balloon like a full moon. Pull it out at once.
6. While still hot, split each balloon along its equator into two leaves and stack them under a cloth.
7. Return the leaves to the oven in batches until gold and fully crisp. For pane guttiau, brush with olive oil, scatter with flaky salt and rosemary, and give them two final minutes in the oven.

Ingredients

• 300 g fine semolina flour
• 100 g plain flour
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus plenty more for frying
• About 140 ml warm water
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 350 g young, mild pecorino, thinly sliced
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 small orange
• 6 tbsp corbezzolo or wildflower honey, gently warmed

Method

1. Work the semolina, flour, salt and 3 tbsp of olive oil together, adding the warm water little by little, until you have a smooth dough. Wrap and rest 30 minutes.
2. Toss the sliced pecorino with both zests so the perfume clings to the cheese.
3. Roll the dough thin and cut 12 rounds of about 10 cm.
4. Lay the cheese over 6 of the rounds, leaving a clean border. Cap with the remaining rounds, press out the air and seal firmly, crimping the edge with a fluted wheel or a fork.
5. Pour 2 cm of olive oil into a wide pan and set it over medium heat. Fry the seadas one or two at a time, turning once, until blistered and golden on both sides.
6. Drain for a breath on a rack, pour the warm honey generously over each one and serve at once, while the cheese inside still flows.