I like handmade. For the most part, Americans don’t like handmade food because it’s not cheap food. But, handmade employs people, and if you don’t think a few extra cents makes a difference, you need to come to Italy and get educated.
Last week I discovered Lorighittas. Ring pasta; the Sardinian word for ring is “lorigi”. Look at them in the picture, they’re a thing of intense beauty, symmetry, and all the things “ring” stands for. The double strands hold a sauce like nothing else. You can click the picture to see it bigger. They are perfect. They are handmade.
Get this: They’re only made in a single city: Morgongiori. Say it fast three or four times. It’s a tiny village near Monte Arci, where the oldest inhabitants of the island got obsidian for arrow and spear points.
My guide and mentor Paola Loi writes, “Originally the lorighittas were made on All Saints’ Day and the originally recipe was to serve them with a thick tomato sauce and chicken wings or legs. Nowadays they can be cooked with zucchini and shrimps, or artichokes and so on.”
Also: “In Morgongiori there is the Sagra delle Lorighittas on the first week of August with free tasting of lorighittas dishes.”
We had them at the fine restaurant in Cagliari called Sa Piola, Vico Santa Margherita, 09124 Cagliari.