Suckling pig cooked slowly until the skin crackles and the meat pulls away clean, scented with myrtle. The Sardinian feast dish, ordered a day ahead in most Alghero trattorias.

Porceddu is the inland counterweight to the Alghero fish tradition, a shepherd's celebration dish that came down to the coast with families from the mountain villages. The pig is young, four to six weeks, and traditionally cooked on a spit over juniper or myrtle embers, then rested under myrtle branches so the leaves perfume the meat as it cools. Restaurants now mostly use ovens, but the myrtle stays. In Alghero it is the plate to order when you want the other half of Sardinia, and kitchens such as Trattoria Lo Romanì cook it from a family repertoire brought from Tonara in the interior.

2 editor picks for Porceddu in Alghero, ranked by editorial score. All Alghero signature dishes · Porceddu across every city.

Also in: Cagliari.