Torrone from Sardinia – the sweet sin of the Sardinians

Your holiday in Sardinia is a great opportunity to try a very special Sardinian delicacy: torrone. Strictly speaking, however, Sardinia is not the birthplace of this speciality. The origins of torrone lie deep in the past and outside Europe. The Moors brought the recipe to Spain in the 16th century, where the white nougat, which consists of almonds, honey, sugar and egg whites in the basic recipe, has been produced ever since. Torrone has also been part of the traditional sweet repertoire elsewhere in Italy, as well as in France and Switzerland, for centuries. But Sardinia has its own proud torrone tradition, and Sardinian mountain honey gives Sardinian torrone its distinctive flavour.

Torrone, Sardinia, Tonara — they go together like honey, egg whites and almonds

The centre of Sardinian torrone production is located in the mountain village of Tonara, also known as the ‘torrone village’. This picturesque village lies in the heart of Sardinia, at an altitude of 850 metres in the middle of the Barbagia mountains. Since 1979, the Sagra del Torrone has been held here every year on Easter Monday. Here you can watch the women of the village stirring the kilo-heavy nougat mixture by hand in a copper cauldron according to old customs — a laborious procedure lasting several hours, but with delicious results. Outside of the Torrone Festival, this laborious work is done by an electric mixer, but otherwise everything is still exactly as it used to be – preparation in copper cauldrons and good regional ingredients, including local mountain blossom honey. The finished mixture is poured into boxes that have been carefully lined with wax paper. There, the hot, sweet mixture cools and solidifies. Then nothing stands in the way of enjoying the torrone.

Torrone from Sardinia — An endangered cultural heritage

The torrone makers in Sardinia are called torronai. Each torronai family has its own secret recipe for making torrone, passed down through generations. There are variations in the types of honey, nuts and almonds used, and in the proportions of the ingredients. It is therefore worth tasting the products of different manufacturers and taking home a sweet souvenir of your holiday. On long, dark autumn and winter days, torrone from Sardinia provides comfort, and any extra pounds you may have put on will disappear under your winter clothes. This traditional sweet treat in its colourful boxes also makes an excellent souvenir. Incidentally, this also supports a trade that is increasingly under threat in today's world. Whereas in the past, the torronai, who travelled from village to village with his sweet cargo in a horse-drawn cart, was eagerly awaited by young and old alike, today he has to compete with a multitude of industrially produced sweets. Unlike these products, which are sweetened with white sugar and glucose syrup, Sardinian torrone owes its sweetness exclusively to the finest honey, which contains valuable trace elements and is absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream. The nuts and almonds used are also healthy and of the highest quality. So even when it comes to indulging, we can learn a thing or two from the Sardinians!

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

Yours, Joachim Waßmann