Sardinia–Cookout, Island Style

Eating in Sardinia, Italy can give you the impression you weren’t on an island off the coast of that most succulent of countries but at a luau in Hawai’i. Typical dishes are what you’d expect from an untamed area where the natives are fiercely proud of their traditions and tend to feature uncomplicated dishes using similarly simple techniques. What makes the cuisine of Sardinia uncommon are the ingredients unique to the island and the combination of meat and seafood together.

Rock lobster, scampi, sardines–which get their name from the island–figure prominently to no one’s surprise, but this was not always the case. It is only recently that seafood began to be so important to the natives of the island who avoided the coasts, once popular with pirates and warring governments. For a real Sardinian experience you’ll feel right at home–it’s cookout time!

When was the last time you got a chance to enjoy spit roasted wild boar? I’m sorry but most of us simply can’t get a whole wild boar, and if we could I doubt many would have the resources to slow roast it, suspended over a pit of flame by a stake. This glorious and often liquor enhanced spectacle is only exalted by the native spices and herbs alternately steamed over the coals and rubbed over the meat until you’re presented with a meat so flavorful and intense you’ll never forget it just recently had tusks worthy of an eclectic millionaire’s trophy wall.