Fish or meat – Agriturismo Part 2

According to holidaymakers, a holiday in Sardinia is not complete without a visit to an agriturismo. Although the figure-conscious regularly face a moral dilemma when faced with the delicacies on offer, they always opt for the calories and tuck in heartily.

There is not just one type of agritourism. It is offered by farmers, shepherds and fishermen, which naturally leads to variations on the same theme. Here are the menus:

Eating on the farm: Here, the most sumptuous menu is served. Sardinian farms still offer the authentic farm experience. There are all the animals you would find on any toy farm: dairy cows, cattle, pigs, rabbits, chickens, etc. Behind the farmhouse are vegetable, potato and wheat fields. Of course, there is also a vineyard. They try to produce as much as possible themselves so that they have money left over for other things!

The menu follows this order:

Appetiser – pasta – meat – dessert, fruit, cheese – coffee – schnapps

At the farmer's, the classic starter is ‘antipasto di terra’: Sardinian flatbread, toasted in a wood-fired oven and lightly drizzled with olive oil, sausage, ham and other delicacies from the farm, olives, cucumbers, fennel and whatever else is in season. Sometimes 10 or more starters are served, and it is not uncommon for our guests to give up after the first course because they eat too much of the starters out of sheer enthusiasm.

The pasta course usually consists of Sardinian ravioli, gnocchetti sardi and zuppa gallurese. The ravioli are filled with fresh ricotta and herbs. They are served with tomato sauce and grated cheese.  Gnocchetti are small pasta shapes served with a tomato and salsiccia sauce. Zuppa gallurese should really be called bread soup. However, this description does not do the dish justice at all. It is my absolute favourite dish, which I always request when I have a free choice of food. It consists of stale bread, mozzarella and fresh herbs, which are layered, covered with a strong meat broth, sprinkled with sheep's cheese and baked.

This is followed by suckling pig, milk-fed lamb and other grilled meats. Accompanied by side dishes from the garden.  Dessert consists of petits fours, in which the few ‘home-grown’ ingredients are combined in highly imaginative ways: almonds, nuts, ricotta, fresh cheese, honey, oranges, limes, fruits, flowers and spices. ‘Seadas’ are a real local speciality:  finely seasoned ricotta is wrapped in pasta dough, fried in oil and rolled in honey. Or amaretti: these are almond biscuits, similar to our macaroons. Or arancini: these are biscuits made from pickled orange peel.

The dishes are accompanied by pure spring water and wine.  Espresso is a must at the end of the meal, followed by grappa, lemon liqueur and myrtle liqueur. It is important to note that nothing is ‘rationed’. Everyone gets what they want and as much as they want.

Venue: The farmer's parlour, sometimes ‘extended’ for guests, but also cosy terraces with views of the countryside.

Life is a little more rustic for the shepherds. They don't live in their village during the summer, but accompany their flocks to the mountains. Here they have built temporary huts, not unlike Native American teepees, and spend their time in the great outdoors breeding sheep and goats and producing cheese. This is a very hard life, considering that a herd rarely has fewer than 200 animals, which have to be milked twice a day.  When they do take the time to entertain guests, it is not only to supplement their income, but also to bring a little variety to their hermit-like existence.

If one were to take the agritourism concept very seriously and only serve food produced on the farm, then the shepherd's menu would be very sparse. That is why an exception has been made here, as it has for the fishermen, allowing food to be purchased from local farmers.  The shepherd's menu is therefore similar to that of the farmer, but there is no kitchen with a stove. Food is therefore roasted, grilled and cooked over an open fire.  The first course here is ‘Patate in capotto’. For this, a sheep or goat is slaughtered, cut up and cooked in a large copper pot over an open fire. Towards the end of the cooking time, potatoes, onions, fennel, cabbage, carrots and other vegetables are added.  It is almost a ‘German’ stew, but to my regret, the Sardinians do not enjoy the delicious broth. Of course, shepherds nowadays also offer delicious pasta dishes.

For dessert, I look forward to dishes that use local ingredients. For example, super-fresh ricotta served on a lettuce leaf. Or the lettuce leaf drizzled with wild honey. Both sound rather ordinary. But the appeal lies in the freshness of the ingredients. Ricotta that has just been made cannot be compared to the kind we buy in the supermarket. Wild honey on salad hearts is a must-try. Add figs from the nearest tree and it's delicious!

Now for the fisherman's menu. The Sardinians are perhaps the only island people in the world for whom fishing plays a minor role. ‘All evil comes from the sea,’ says a Sardinian proverb. Anyone familiar with history knows that the Sardinians have indeed always been victims of invaders who came across the sea. That is why there is only one fisherman on the entire east coast who has devoted himself to agritourism. He has his territory in the brackish lakes of San Teodoro, and anyone who visits him in the evening will find not only good food but also pure romance.

His menu varies from the farmer's menu. Wherever the farmer serves meat, the shepherd replaces it with fish. As starters, ‘Antipasti di Mare’: there are all kinds of raw seafood, oysters, mussels, tuna. But cooked dishes also feature on the starter plate. I was particularly impressed by the ‘Moscardini alla Diavola’, small squid prepared in a spicy tomato sauce. The pasta course naturally combines noodles with mussels and seafood. There is ‘Spaghetti alle vongole’, but also the Sardinian speciality ‘Bottarga’. This could be translated as caviar, because it is made from fish eggs. However, it differs in that this caviar does not come from sturgeon, but preferably from mullet, and is salted and air-dried like ham. Mullet do the opposite of salmon. They come from the sea to mountain streams to spawn. Mullet, however, migrate to the brackish and freshwater lakes of the shore zones because they are particularly rich in nutrients. Only when they have eaten their fill and become fat do they return to the sea to spawn. Then the fishermen block their way back and catch them in large quantities.

The mullet eggs (bottarga) are served as an appetiser, for example as carpaccio with raw artichokes. But they are also excellent when grated over ‘spaghetti, aglio e olio’ like Parmesan cheese or simply eaten with toasted flatbread. The main course consists of fresh fish and the whole range of mussels, crabs, lobsters and langoustines – fried, in a salt crust, grilled, in wine sauce, alla catalana or Sicilian style. I will spare you any further recipes. Try it for yourself, because the proof of the pudding is in the eating!

The dessert, unsurprisingly, is an exact copy of the farmer's menu. Or would you like to try tiramisu as a ‘fish dessert’?

With a Sardinian ‘Adiosu’, I bid you farewell for today.

Joachim Waßmann