We went to visit the combined kitchen and fresh pasta shop of Antonietta Cuozzo and her son Carlo Cherchi at 87, via Figoli in Oristano. Antonietta founded this enterprise in 1971 and she has expanded her firm gradually being aided by her son and some employees.
Having entered the shop, we were surprised by the sight of lots of delicious pastries because we didn’t know that Antonietta was making anything else than fresh pasta, as shown on the exterior of her shop. Anyway, inside the shop we were tempted by the sight of delicious, hand-made sweets like seadas, various pies, ciambelle and pabassini using high-quality ingredients.
However, the product which was most intriguing was the Sardinian roasted fregola, a typical Sardinian pasta made from semolina, water and salt, all which is reduced to tiny spheres, which are roasted in an oven.
It really looks like the famous couscous probably due to cultural exchanges between Sardinia and the peoples of North Africa, a not surprising supposition given the exchanges between the peoples of the Mediterranean for millennia.
Fregola is often served in fish or meat soups, but also with risotto and sheep’s cheese or more traditionally with various types of molluscs like clams and mussels.
This firm also occupies itself with making various tasty dishes ready to be taken away like baked pasta, polenta, ravioli with ham, cannelloni, etc.
During our visit, some of the coworkers were preparing parmigiana di melanzane, salad pies with cheese and vegetables and meat sauce for seasoning ravioli with meat, the specialty of this firm.
When we were thanking Antonietta, she kindly gave us some bags of fregola, which we appreciated highly. This was a pleasant and interesting visit and Antonietta and her son willingly answered all our questions.
