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Sardinia

Pretty familiar places: Santa Lucia and La Caletta

by Elisa on May 6, 2012

in Italy,travel

Sometimes I want to explore, get lost somewhere new and unknown. It’s exciting, exhilarating for me to walk somewhere I’ve never walked before, breathe in the air of a new city.

And yet, this time around on my visit to Sardinia, I found myself looking for familiar sights. Perhaps because I was feeling a bit unsettled by some recent changes, or maybe just because I wanted to rediscover old favorites; but one weekend, spurred by a childhood memory, I asked my parents to take me and the girls to the two spots I used to be able to spot in the distance (and occasionally bike to) from a beach I went to with my cousins – the two towers, as I called them when I was little.

And so we found ourselves visiting two little seaside villages, still sleepy because of the early season, and still familiar despite how many years have passed since I was last there.

The first: Santa Lucia, a tiny coastal village that falls under the municipality of Siniscola. The tower was one of the many built all over the coast in Sardinia back in the 1500s, to defend the island from pirates.

Stella and my dad walked around the beach (La Spiaggia Delle Barche) looking for shells and tossing pebbles in the water, while Sarah just sat and stared at the sea, lost in thought and listening to her iPod, as it is fitting to a tween.

Next stop: La Caletta, a fishing village nearby, with its own little tower.

It was very windy on this exposed stretch of coast, so everyone wanted to cut the visit short; but I just loved how the wind made the overgrown grass sway in a way that mimicked the waves of the nearby sea, and Stella wanted to get out and look around a bit (mini-me, that one!) so off we went, on our own for a little while, to explore this little corner that, much like the rest of this gorgeous island, feels so much like home and so foreign at the same time.

 

For more posts (and photos!) about my birth place, the beautiful island of Sardinia, go here.

 

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Country decor and a sweet tradition

by Elisa on May 3, 2012

in food,Italians,Italy

In Italy, any excuse is good to celebrate.

When the unseasonably chilly and rainy weather ended and finally Sardinia got back to her usual sunny self, the temptation to organize a little old-fashioned get-together was too strong to resist.

My uncle’s little piece of farmland on the hills right outside of town was the perfect place: lots of space for the kiddies to run around, and that shabby country decor that just screams comfortable, cozy and absolutely informal.

And so it was that in the space of a few days, we got together there twice: first to celebrate Stella’s birthday (still two weeks away, but I’ll have returned to Switzerland by then!) and then, well, just because it was a holiday and we were all off.

card game? yes. quiet? NO. This was a very loud, very chaotic, very fun round of Mercante in Fiera

Then on Tuesday afternoon I got a cooking lesson from my aunt, zia Carmela… who answered a question I had posed about an ingredient of a traditional dessert by purchasing all the necessary items so I could make it right there with her.

So here’s a speedy explanation of how to make Sebadas, the traditional fried pastries that here in Sardinia are served at all wedding receptions before the actual cake, and are included in the dessert menu of 98% of Sardinian restaurants.

First, make the dough: half wheat flour, half semolina flour, lard. Knead.

While the dough rests, make the filling: freshly made unsalted cheese made from a mix of sheep’s and cow’s milk

Cut it in cubes and melt it in a pot with a little water and sugar

Add semolina flour and grated lemon peel and stir until completely melted, then let cool slightly and shape into small flat disks

Roll out the dough with a pasta machine. Place a cheese disk over some dough and cover with more rolled dough. Gently pat down to get rid of air bubbles.

Press the edges to enclose the cheese in dough and cut around it with a pastry wheel

When ready to eat, fry in hot oil, drain on paper towels and consume topped with sugar or honey.

When you cut into a hot sebada, the sweet, lemony cheese filling is all melted… I’d show you a picture of how it looks once it’s cut, but we devoured them too quickly for me to immortalize them!

Ah, I just love coming home :-)

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Blue

August 4, 2011 family matters

Our vacation is over. We are home. I am one husband and one daughter short, since he is in the US and she stayed in Sardinia with my parents. The house is surprisingly quiet with just me and Stella in it. Which frankly isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I could do with some quiet right [...]

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Making peace with home: exploring Nuoro

August 1, 2011 Italy

Sardinia gives you this feeling of being away from the rest of the world – it’s an island, true and true. It’s as if there’s Sardinia, and then there’s the rest of the world – and other places seem far away, remote, almost surreal. Nuoro was isolated from the rest of the world.*  Nuoro is the [...]

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Copyright Elisa Bieg, 2008-2009.