Sardinian Fregola

Name: Sardinian Fregola
Prep time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Fregola 333 g; Pecorino 120 g; Meat stock 960 ml; Parsley q.b.; Saffron 0.1 g; Extra virgin olive oil q.b.; Salt q.b.; Pepper q.b.

Informazioni della ricetta Sardinian Fregola: difficoltà e tempo di preparazione
Difficulty	Easy
Tempo di preparazione	40 min

Description

It’s very similar to couscous, but comes from Italy: Sardinian fregola, a historic type of pasta that is typical of Sardinia, is made with three simple ingredients: durum wheat, water and salt.

Usually fregola is used in first courses, with fish or vegetables. In this recipe we suggest a dish that pairs fregola with another typical ingredient from this region: mature Sardinian pecorino.

If you want to bring an irresistible first course with fregola to your table, read on to find out how to make it!

Ingredients

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Tabella ingredienti per Sardinian Fregola
Fregola	Fregola	333 g
Pecorino	Pecorino	120 g
Meat stock	Meat stock	960 ml
Parsley	Parsley	q.b.
Saffron	Saffron	0.1 g
Extra virgin olive oil	Extra virgin olive oil	q.b.
Salt	Salt	q.b.
Pepper	Pepper	q.b.

Instructions

Tips

1 Boil the meat stock in a pot and add the Sardinian fregola, letting it cook for 15 minutes. Midway through cooking, add the saffron.
2 In the meantime, wash the parsley, peel the onion and chop both. Grate the pecorino and place it in a bowl.
3 Heat a little extra virgin olive oil in a pan and then add the chopped onion. When it has browned, add parsley and sauté for a couple of minutes, then turn off the heat.
4 When the stock has been fully absorbed by the fregola, take a casserole dish and fill it with one layer of fregola, then one of sautéed onion and one of grated pecorino cheese; continue to alternate the layers until you have used up all the ingredients.
5 Bake for 15/20 minutes in the pre-heated oven at 180°. Once ready, your fregola should be dry enough to eat with a fork. Enjoy your meal!

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Variations

Ideal when served in broth, this type of pasta can also be paired with a wide variety of sauces. The most traditional seasoning is
tomato sauce
, but fregula can also be enjoyed with sausage or seafood.

It can easily become an excellent base for Italian-style
couscous
, cold pasta salads, or—on the contrary—original risotto-like dishes. Sardinia boasts countless recipes featuring fregula sarda: from the famous pilao or pilau with seafood or lobster, to fregula with beans, fregula soup with wild herbs, or fregula with celery and potatoes.

Among the best-known variations of Sardinian fregula, we certainly have

fregula with seafood

, a
typical first course from Sardinia
.

A typical way of cooking fregula is with fish , in particular with clams, a dish par excellence of Cagliari gastronomy, called “
sa fregual cun cocciula
” or fregula with clams . Clams are in all respects
native clams
, but smaller in size and with more uniform colors depending on the family.

For a successful fregula with sauce and clams, here are some tips: clean the clams and soak them in salted water to allow them to purge . Heat the garlic and oil in a pan. Add the clams. Cook over high heat. In another pan , sauté the garlic, oil, and chili pepper . When the garlic is golden, remove it. Now add the
tomato puree
and season with salt. Once opened, remove the clams from the heat, remove any that have hatched during cooking from the water and discard the shells.

Pour the filtered clam liquid into the tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Add the fregula and cook until tender. If the mixture becomes too dry, add more clam liquid diluted with fish broth or water—be careful not to make it too salty. After about twenty minutes, add the reserved clams (keeping a few in their shells for garnish). Finish cooking, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve hot.

Did You Know?

Few people know that historians have long debated whether fregula sarda is a Sardinian reinterpretation of a dish introduced by the Phoenicians, Punics, or Carthaginians—or an entirely original creation born from the skilled hands of Sardinian women.

Its name has a Latin origin
. In fact, it derives from the word
ferculum
, which means “crumb” and the first concrete evidence dates it back to the 10th century AD.

Moreover, a document from the Statute of the Millers of Tempio Pausania in the 14th century regulated its production, which was to be carried out strictly from Monday to Friday—so that the water supply could be reserved for the fields on Saturdays and Sundays.