History

Fregola is made by rubbing coarse semolina with salted water in a wide terracotta basin until it beads, then toasting the beads in the oven, which gives the pasta its colour and its smell. The technique is old and shared across the western Mediterranean, closest in method to North African couscous, and it has been documented in Sardinia for centuries. The arselle are the small clams raked from the lagoons and shallows around the Golfo degli Angeli, so the dish is a direct product of the water the city sits on. Cagliari serves it wetter than the inland versions, closer to a soup, with garlic, parsley, a little tomato and the clam liquor doing the seasoning.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Molluscs

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 30 minTotal 50 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 320g fregola sarda, medium grain
  • 1kg small clams (arselle or vongole), purged in salted water
  • 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 200g ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 150ml dry Vermentino
  • 1.2 litres light fish or vegetable stock, kept hot
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • A handful of flat parsley, chopped
  • Salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Purge the clams in cold salted water for at least an hour, then rinse and discard any that stay open when tapped.
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wide pan, add half the garlic, then the clams and the wine. Cover and cook 3 to 4 minutes until they open, then lift them out and strain the liquor through muslin.
  3. In the same pan warm the rest of the oil and garlic, add the tomatoes and cook 5 minutes until they collapse.
  4. Add the fregola and toast it for 1 minute, then add the strained clam liquor and enough hot stock to cover by two fingers.
  5. Simmer 12 to 15 minutes, adding stock as it absorbs, until the fregola is tender but still has bite and the pan holds a loose broth.
  6. Shell two thirds of the clams, return everything to the pan with the parsley, check the salt and serve in bowls with the shelled and unshelled clams on top.

Tip from the editors. Do not salt until the end. The clam liquor is already salty and it concentrates as the fregola drinks the broth.

Where to eat fregola con le arselle

Fregola con le arselle in Cagliari

Antica Hostaria ★ 4.1

€€€ ItalianMarina

Antica Hostaria on Via Cavour is the old-school Cagliari osteria of the Marina, dark wood and a fish-led list of Sardinian classics under Antonio Mura.

OrderFregula con arselle, or the baked capon with artichokes and potatoes.

TipClosed Sunday. The room started as a mid-nineteenth-century inn and the kitchen still leans on the fish list rather than the printed classics.

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