SARDINIA

SARDINIA

If, for a moment, we move from the classical geographical   figure of Sardinia away from the peninsula of Italy      and instead, we take a physical  map of Europe, without political boundary lines, and we observe the Island again, we would realise  that the Island lies right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, near to Europe and Africa, looking, towards the “boot” of Italy, but also towards France and Spain, then perhaps we could better understand  the Island, its geography,  its history and its people who have always been mixed up in the vicissitudes of Europe. Today, Sardinia is famous for its beaches, its uncontaminated environment and its excellent food, but the situation  was the same for Primitive Man who found the necessary material  to make arms  and found wild life sufficient for their survival and an ideal  place in which to take refuge thanks to the presence of many rocky caves.
Since those times, Sardinia has never been abandoned by Man, who created the famous  domus de janas  (those little necropolis excavated in the rocks), who created hundreds of menhir - and dolmen along with megalithic altars.
The nauraghe are just the more recent buildings of Sardinia prehistory, the climax of this society and not the beginning of life on the Island, as some very  superficial analysis of the past presented it.
One after the other all of the important and great empires of the Mediterranean have spent some time on the Island, like the Phoenicians, the Punic population, the Romans and after a brief period of the Vandals came the Byzantine population, up to the time of auto-government  known as the glorious Judiciary period. During all of the comings and goings of these peoples the Sardinians did not sit and watch, they took arms against the invaders and if necessary took refuge behind those natural bastions of the impervious mountains. To prove this point is the name  given by the Romans of “Barbaria” , a name often given to  populations who would not be subdued by the Romans and so lived outside the Empire, and here the paradox because  the area
“Barbaria” lay right in the heart of the Empire in Sardinia.
Sardinia, with its 24,090 sq. kilometres has only one natural lake, all of its rivers are torrential and its prime wind is  Mistral which whips the Island almost constantly and shows its art in the bizarre shapes of the trees. These trees act as a compass in their growth as they bend towards the south-east. It is difficult to change the wind, but so ass to create some “lake” during the last century some works have been carried out so as to block the rivers in the course and so create vast artificial lakes which have favoured the birth of many urban centres and modified the economy. Although the Island has known a brief parenthesis of mining and industrial activities, the economical cornerstones have always been agriculture and shepherding. From these descends a prolific hand-craft sector which recently has  been  discovered by the whole world so giving life to a flourishing exporting activity. But where ever You move on the Island the new economic tendency is that of environmental tourism which is exploits the territory and its local products generated by that millenary Sardinia which was once considered a raw left-over of an archaic era, whilst today it is undeniably considered as being a timeless beauty casket.

CHOOSE A REGION OF ITALY

For 4–6 serving:

• 500 g spinach
• 250 g ricotta cheese
• grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• béchamel
• butter
• grated nutmeg
• salt
• pepper

Wash, trim and boil the spinach in a little salted water, then drain and leave to cool. Squeeze it out well, and chop finely. Mash the ricotta thoroughly in a bowl, and mix it with the spinach, egg yolks, and a few spoonfuls of grated Parmesan. Season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.
If the mixture is too stiff, add the egg whites or a drop of warm milk, then use the filling to stuff the pasta squares. ... continue