Ten times Siddi

We already explained how heroic is Roberto Petza’s mission, in the wild heart of Sardinia, some time ago. Today we tell about a festival that last Sunday transformed Siddi – a few hundred souls 60 km North of Cagliari - in a party for the palate. The animators were the best chefs from the region of Marmilla, from the whole island and even from a little further on the other side of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Bread makers, producers and paladins of many good things, from Bitto storico to stone-milled flour, from local honey to Giusy Foschia’s wild aromatic herbs from Friuli, from Tuscan dried pasta up to all the knowledge that the small pasta makers on the island are trying to pull out of an ignominious oblivion. Too many flashes to build an organic net. For this reason we isolate only 10 facts, running the risk of appearing as arid as the jars from this magnificent region.

The first mention goes to the magnificent estate represented by Casa Puddu, the stage for the second edition of Coxinas. Just outside its walls, patron Petza placed the small heroes of local production, among whom the pasta makers who are producing maccarrones, lorighittas, tallutzas, which we thought lost under the northwest wind. Inside the white stone walls, the island’s great chefs were tracing some short essays on the anthropology of deliciousness. And then the space in front of S’Apposentu every year enlarges the surface dedicated to the wild herbs garden and the one where the donkeys rest. And protects a barnyard with a growing number of animals from killer foxes. Noah’s ark in Marmilla.

Sheep. This is Roberto Petza’s mature gastronomic symbol. He counts them even from his bed in the few hours when he tries to sleep. The Petzaburger street food with the raw heart, made gentler thanks to the spices, is a gem. There are so many different textures in the dish, what with the most Sardinian quadruped and the sea, a marriage that is often celebrated in the menu of S’Apposentu.

The serenity with which Mauricio Zillo - chef from Sao Paulo who came from Rebelot del Pont in Milan and was the co-author of two dinners together with the host-and-colleague – put up with all the palpitations during the penalty kicks between Brazil and Chile. «Today I already picked some raw materials I had never seen. It’s enough for my enjoyment». A forager from two worlds.

The dinners at S’Apposentu will also be recalled thanks to a third author of the menu, namely Roberta Pezzella from Frosinone, now working at Bonci’s bakery in Rome, the author of the perfect bread dish and for this reason worthy of putting her name next to those of the couple from Brazil and Marmilla. She even held a very appreciated lecture for which she was also praised by Chiara Quaglia of Molino Quaglia: «Nobody has such a strong feeling for flour and water. The world of bread calls for more women». Mother yeast.

We have also found a good empirical way to distinguish an industrial pasta maker from an artisanal one: Dino Martelli, third generation of the homonymous famous pasta factory in Lari, on the hills of Pisa, produces in a year the same amount of pasta that Barilla creates in 5 hours. David and Goliath.

Gigi Manìas’s strawberry tree honey and millefiori honey. He’s an admirable local agronomist with a Gramscian approach: «We don’t care enough about the negative effect that electromagnetic fields have on bees - very sensitive beings. There’s more than pollution», he warned. A bitter countdown.

In the dialectal orgy of great dishes cooked under the strong sun on Sunday (Roberto Serra’s Culurzunes and cirvazzu, Pierluigi Fais’s Pani farrigungiada, Manuele Senis’s Chickpea faine with bonito sausage and cipudda ) the Pistoccu di paulilatino with tamatta and pecorino, also by Serra, stood out thanks to its freshness. With tomatoes so full of taste that one almost wanted to call the call-centres of our supermarkets and put up a fight.

Semi-mature pecorino ice cream with lavender honey and almond brittle by Stefano Deidda of Corsaro and Fork in Cagliari. A cheese cart disguised as a dessert.

The cheese workshop with producers of very different cheeses, such as Paolo Ciapparelli (president of Associazione produttori Valli del Bitto storico), Luca Confortola (San Gottardo in Valfurva, Sondrio) and Michele Cuscusa (Fratelli Cuscusa in Pardu Corongiu, Gonnostramatza, Oristano). Say cheese.

The aperitif at sunset at Salvatore Pilloni’s scenic winery Su Hentu in Nuraxi Pusceddu, near Sanluri, overlooking the entire region of Marmilla. The wind and the Vermentino.