Dark red novello wine
drawn off especially for the occasion, bitingly strong "fil'e ferru" (Sardinian
aquavit), almond cakes, bitter honey, rujolos (sweet cheese-filled fritters), crisp
shepherd's bread, granza (bread made of bran) and orzatu (barley bread), tallarinos de
casu friscu (long thin pieces of fresh cheese), maharrones urriaos pasta with melted
cheese, polenta with purpuzza (lean pork), broad beans with fat pork and barbequed spiced
sausage and suckling pig.
The menu of this Barbagia festival, sampled
amid the acrid smell of bonfires and camp fires, would appear to be perfect for exorcising
evil, for forgetting bad times and looking forward to better days of peace and plenty. |
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"Su pan’e Sant’Antoni" or "pane nigheddu" (St.
Anthony's bread) is made with toasted chopped walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds, "binu
cottu" (must which has been refined with boiling coals), sultanas, durum wheat flour
and a good spoonful of caramellised sugar. It is left to rise naturally for a whole day
and then formed into flat rectangular shapes and cooked in a traditional wood-fired oven.