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THE FOODS
Frequenters of modern Sardinia's beach resorts consider the island a haven for seafood that goes so nicely on summer days with cool white Vermentino or Nuragus. And indeed the rugged coasts provide such delights as rock lobsters, crabs, anchovies, squid, clams and the sardines that may or may not have taken their name from the island. Spicy fish soups are called burrida and cassòla. At Oristano they dry mullet eggs into blocks of delectably pungent bottarga or buttariga to slice thin over pasta or salads.
Yet it's said that the real Sardinian cooking is the rustic fare of the hills and the hearth: roast meats, sausages and salame, savory sharp Pecorino Sardo cheese and red wines of the weight of Cannonau and Monica. Near the town of Nuoro, in the Barbagia hills, they skewer suckling pig called porceddu or lamb or kid on poles of aromatic wood to be turned occasionally as they roast for hours before an open wood fire. Now rare is the method of roasting a carraxiu, in a pit lined with branches of juniper, olive and rosemary, over which is lit a bonfire whose falling embers encase the meat and cook it slowly with the juices sealed inside.
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THE WINES
Isolation in mid-Mediterranean has made Sardinia the most idiosyncratic of Italian regions. The island's history has been influenced as much by foreigners, Spaniards in particular, as by other Italians.
The island's vines tell a story of their own, frequently with a Spanish accent. The Mediterranean stalwarts are there in the various clones of Moscato and Malvasia, but several other varieties are unique in Italy, such as Girò, Cannonau, Nuragus, Monica, Semidano, Torbato and Vernaccia di Oristano...
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