{"id":4566,"date":"2012-07-06T17:17:52","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T00:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2016-02-28T20:59:37","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T04:59:37","slug":"fregola-sarda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/fregola-sarda\/","title":{"rendered":"Fregola Sarda"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fregola-Sarda-640x500-2039_773\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fregola sarda (fregola or fregula) is a signature pasta of Sardegna. It is believed to be yet another example of the Moorish influence on Italian cuisine, having come from North Africa. Durum wheat is rolled into tiny balls and toasted, giving the pasta its trademark varicolored golden tint.<\/p>\n

\"Fregola-Rustichella-640x469-2428_769\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With its nutty taste and pleasing bite fregola is added to soups like Sardegna’s famous Sa fregula con vongole – a clam soup with a saffron broth. Boiled in water, chicken or vegetable stock, it cooks up in about 10 to 12 minutes for a quick side dish, dressed simply with olive oil and Parmigiano or Pecorino sardo. I love to use it in salads. Think of any couscous or bulgur salad you make, and fregola will work beautifully.<\/p>\n

Warm fregola, sauteed vegetables, pine nuts, golden raisins and tomatoes are combined with a lightly sweetened basil dressing to create a multi-textured salad. Use any vegetables you like – brightly colored peppers work beautifully as do eggplant, yellow squash, peas and corn. Be sure to cut the vegetables into a fine dice. The uniform size of ingredients makes this a special dish. Dress the salad when the ingredients are still warm. That way they will absorb the dressing.<\/p>\n

The salad is finished with torn basil leaves and strips of Parmigiano or Pecorino sardo. Use a vegetable peeler to create the strips by pulling it down the length of the cheese in one smooth motion. You can create beautiful long thin strips of cheese that really set the dish off.<\/p>\n

This can be served warm, at room temperature or chilled. It makes a wonderful side dish, or it can be the main event for a luncheon. Try marinating chicken breasts in olive oil, lemon, garlic and rosemary, then grill and serve atop a bed of Fregola salad.<\/p>\n

\"Fregola-Rustichella-475x640-2456_770\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One thing – go for the good stuff, Rustichella d’Abruzzo<\/a> – made of the finest winter wheat, it is my favorite brand.<\/p>\n

\"Fregola-Sarda-640x375-2043_771\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fregola Sarda with Vegetables and Basil Vinaigrette<\/em><\/h4>\n
serves 4 to 6<\/h6>\n

2 cups fregola sarda<\/p>\n

1 medium yellow onion, minced
\n2 carrots, peeled and cut in fine dice
\n1 red bell pepper, cut in fine dice
\n2 small zucchini, cut in fine dice
\n1\/4 cup pignoli
\n1\/4 cup golden raisins
\nsalt and pepper
\n3 tablespoons olive oil<\/p>\n

12 small tomatoes, such as Sungold<\/a>, Juliet, Golden Rave or Jaune Flamme, quartered
\nbasil leaves
\nParmigiano or Pecorino sardo<\/p>\n

Basil Vinaigrette – recipe follows<\/p>\n

Bring 6 quarts water to a boil.<\/p>\n

While water is coming to the boil, pour olive oil into 12 inch saute pan. Heat over medium. Add onions and carrots and 1\/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Saute gently 6 to 8 minutes until onion is translucent and carrots have begun to soften. Do not brown.<\/p>\n

At this point salt boiling water generously. Add fregola to water and stir. Boil 10 to 12 minutes, until done.<\/p>\n

Add pepper, zucchini and 1\/4 teaspoon salt to saute pan. Continue cooking until peppers and zucchini soften, about 10 minutes. About 2 minutes before vegetables are done, add pignoli to pan and saute, tossing frequently.<\/p>\n

Just a few seconds before you drain pasta, add raisins to pasta water to soften. Drain and transfer to large bowl. Add sauteed vegetables and quartered tomatoes, tossing to combine. Add vinaigrette tablespoon by tablespoon and toss (you will not use all of it), tasting as you go. Do not add too much vinaigrette or the salad will be oily. Check seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as necessary.<\/p>\n

Top with torn basil leaves, strips of cheese and a bit of freshly ground pepper. Serve.<\/p>\n

Basil Vinaigrette<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/2 cup basil leaves, tightly packed
\n2 teaspoons honey
\n1\/4 cup white Balsamic vinegar
\n1\/4 teaspoon sea salt
\n1\/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
\n1\/2 cup fruity olive oil, such as DaVero<\/a> or a Ligurian oil made from Taggiasca olives OR 1\/2 cup canola oil<\/p>\n

Place basil, honey, vinegar and salt and pepper in workbowl of food processor fitted with steel knife. Process to puree basil. With machine running, add oil through feed tube. Check seasoning. Transfer to glass container and refrigerate until use.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Note: You can click on any picture for a slide show!<\/em><\/p>\n

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fregola sarda (fregola or fregula) is a signature pasta of Sardegna. It is believed to be yet another example of the Moorish influence on Italian cuisine, having come from North Africa. Durum wheat is rolled into tiny balls and toasted, giving the pasta its trademark varicolored golden tint. With its nutty taste and pleasing bite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59],"tags":[1368,1169,1370,1366,1367,269,1369],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes","tag-basil-vinaigrette","tag-davero","tag-fregola-salad","tag-fregola-sarda","tag-fregula","tag-rustichella-dabruzzo","tag-sa-fregula-con-vongole"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pYzzK-1bE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8484,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions\/8484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}