Semolina rolled into rough pellets, toasted until nutty, then simmered in the broth of tiny arselle clams. It is the plate Cagliari is judged on, soupy rather than dry, eaten with a spoon in the Marina.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
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.
Common allergens: Gluten, Molluscs
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.
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.
Order: Fregula con arselle, or the baked capon with artichokes and potatoes.
Tip: Closed Sunday. The room started as a mid-nineteenth-century inn and the kitchen still leans on the fish list rather than the printed classics.
More cities are in research. Want fregola con le arselle covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.