Typical recipes for Christmas in Sardinia

All the authentic flavor of the holidays and typical products to put on the table

The table of the Christmas holidays in Sardinia, as per tradition, is richly set with dishes with poor raw materials but intense taste. There is no typical Sardinian Christmas feast menu, as dishes vary according to geographical area. However, the one must-have item throughout the island is porcetto, or suckling pig cooked on a spit for several hours and served on a bed of myrtle branches. This is the dish that cannot be missed in the homes of Sardinians from north to south. (To find out what all the traditional Sardinian dishes are, click here!).

Porceddu sardo (ph. Dario Garofalo)

Lamb is often added to this delicacy, usually stewed with green olives harvested in the fall and set to flavor in large glass jars in a solution of water, salt and wild fennel. These olives, added during the slow cooking of the lamb, give the meat a delicate but strong flavor, enriched by the hints of wild fennel.

Various cold cuts and sliced meats, such as pork sausage, coppa and spiced hams, often flavored with dried fennel seeds, abound among the appetizers. These are accompanied by Sardinian pecorino cheese and fresh cheeses such as paneddas, a kind of small, less salty provolone cheese that is often eaten while still soft, before the short maturing period of a few days is completed. A real treat for the palate, sometimes served with honey, thus turning into a dessert, or barbecued and served on a round, soft bread, the spianata.

Pane

Also inescapable, panedda is widespread in Gallura, where it is chopped and flavored with orange and lemon peel to become the filling for seadas, a dessert that, although available year-round, is indispensable at Christmas time on the tables of the Gallura stazzi.

Culurgiones, typical ravioli stuffed with potatoes and mint leaves, are topped with a thick, aromatic sauce cooked for hours, often flavored with fresh basil or pork, and are almost always the main dish at Christmas Eve dinner or December 25 lunch. In Gallura, potato culurgiones are substituted for ravioli filled with ricotta, or ricotta and spinach or wild chard. Also seasoned with a slow-cooked, intensely flavored sauce, ricotta ravioli can also have a sweet version, typical of Gallura, which includes a little sugar in the filling and is served with a sauce enriched with fresh peas. A recipe handed down from mother to daughter that has belonged to the Gallura tradition for centuries.

Sardinian first courses

Another typical dish is chjusoni, handmade durum wheat semolina gnocchetti served with sauce and plenty of grated pecorino cheese.

Li Chiusoni, Agriturismo La Colti

If meat and cheese dishes are the stars of Sardinian Christmas tables, seafood flavors are also added in coastal localities: mullet or tuna roe is used to season pasta or cut into thin slices and served with raw fennel hearts. Lobster and fish such as sea bass and sea bream also appear on the island's Christmas menus, although they are not strongly rooted in tradition. The table never lacks carasau bread, often guttiau, that is, flavored with olive oil and salt.

Prepared starting with the All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and then also found on Christmas tables, pabassinas are shortbread pastries with raisins, almonds, walnuts, grated lemon peel and honey, decorated with a glaze and colored sprinkles. Another Christmas dessert are tiliccas, small bundles of very thin pastry with a filling of jam, walnuts, orange zest and spices. Gallura also has no shortage of ghattò, a kind of nougat made with caramelized sugar and slivered almonds, decorated with sugar sprinkles.

Accompanying these dishes is Cannonau wine, while myrtle liqueur, sometimes made from the leaves of the plant as well as the berries, is served at the conclusion of meals.