Gluttony

Spring 2010

The friends inform us they found a charming farm camping. We see the sign and turn from asphalt road to gravy road. Small bridge and we arrive. It’s a small pitch for only for 4-5 campers. Just for us. A small man come and greets us – the owner. He is a farmer, growing pigs and ships. He is asking us if we want to have a dinner tomorrow. We immediately agree, where else can you try a real traditional Sardinian cuisine?

Next morning, we go to visit Orgoslo, a famous city for its walls paintings. Before we go for a visit, we get a small excursion at the farm. We cannot see pigs and ships, as they are grazing somewhere far. Pigs are in the forest of course. On Sardine, as on Corsica pigs are walking freely in the private forest that people own. This way, pig’s diet consists of all ecological and tasty forest things (from pigs point of view) – worms, bugs, leaves, mushrooms (maybe even truffles), clean water etc. Later, during dinner, we had possibility to appreciate its wonderful quality and taste. The best ever. 

We visit the farm building. The center of it is a square yard. We enter the yard through a small porch and see all around us walls of the house. On the left we enter the living room, on the right there are few rooms for accommodation. In front is a covered terrace, and small door with leads to storage room. Wow, in one room tasty hams are hanging from the ceiling, in the other - cheese is aging, in the other – young cheese, ricotta is made. We taste and buy some old and young cheese. Young cheese, ricotta we had possibility to taste before, on Corsica. There it is called brocciu. It’s usually served with honey. We fell in love with it.

After excursion to farms cellar, owner brings us to the living room. There, a big open fireplace is already on fire. In front of it, huge spits with meat are standing to roast. What it is? Young pig and lamb. Yummy. We are looking forward to our dinner tonight.

Visit to Orslolo is successful but it’s ending in a torrent rain. So we are glad we can come back sooner and wait for our much expected dinner. The pork and lamb is nicely roasted. The aroma of smoked myrtle tree is floating all over the room. We sit at a big rustic table. The feast is starting.

First of all we are served with home made red wine. Plates are taking their places on table. A big plate with Sardinian bred - plat, crunchy, tasty pancakes, a plate with cheeses of different ages, a big plate with charcuterie , smoked lards, meat and something white. What it can be? It’s pure fat! The smoked fat is cut into thin slices. We carefully taste it. It’s sooooo tasty! Of course, because it is fat, it is melting in our mouth, and we are overwhelming by the taste and aroma of smoked maquis herbs. It’s like the volatile taste and aroma materialized into fat and we have the honor to taste it in its pure form. 

Next round. Plates with vegetables. Pickled peppers, aubergine, green beans. We get some big leaves on the plates. ??? Fried sage leaves! The sage we saw at the entrance and were surprised by it’s size. Ohh, we are already full.

Our host is not done with us yet. Next course is coming. Pasta. Ravioli in tomato souse. We are greedy, so we cannot leave pasta. Another tasty dish of Sardinian cuisine.

The main dish! The host take big scissors for cutting tree branches, and begin to cut roasted pork and lamb meat into smaller pieces. Seeing appetizing chunks and inhaling meat aroma we forget about our full stomachs and decide to continue the feast. The meat is soft and juicy. We are sorry we ate so much before and cannot enjoy more of these Sardinian delights.

But the food torture is not finished. Fruits. Yummy, yummy oranges. Then we get a home made schnapps. Then tea and coffee. We are finished. Literally. God has all the right to punish us for gluttony. The pain in our full stomachs is already a punishment. We roll to our campers.