Wheat pasta parcels filled with potato, aged pecorino and mint, closed with a hand-pleated seam that looks like an ear of wheat. Served simply, in tomato sauce or with butter, so the seam and the filling do the work.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Culurgiones come from Ogliastra, on the eastern side of Sardinia, and have travelled to every table on the island including Cagliari's. The filling is a shepherd's economy: boiled potato, grated aged pecorino, olive oil or lard, and mint, which is what lifts the whole thing. The closure is the point of pride. The pleat, called spighitta after the wheat ear it resembles, is made by folding the dough over itself from side to side with the thumb and finger, and a badly stitched culurgione is a fair reason for criticism in Sardinia. The shape carries an older meaning as an offering, and in Ogliastra the parcels are still associated with the feasts of the dead in early November.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Keep the filling firm. Wet potato tears the seam and the parcels burst as soon as they hit the water.
Su Cumbidu on Via Napoli feeds the Marina fixed-price Sardinian menus under brick arches, culurgiones and seadas at prices Cagliari students accept.
Try: Fixed-price Sardinian menus
Order: Culurgiones, potato and mint, in tomato sauce.
Tip: The set menus are the value play at around €20 to 30; go early, because groups book out the arched back room.
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