La Barbicina di Orgosolo

Name: La Barbicina di Orgosolo
Yield: serves 4
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 6 ounces pancetta, minced; 3 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and minced; 2 cups canned tomato puree; 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus additional for cooking pasta; 2/3 cup good red wine; 1 tablespoon good red wine vinegar; 1 cup just-grated pecorino; 1 batch malloreddus di Desulo (page 234) or 12 ounces of penne, fusilli, ziti, or other short-cut pasta; 8 ounces bottarga

January 24, 2012

A tiny place where once lived the paladins of Sardegna is Orgosolo. Only a decade or so ago did they think it prudent, finally, to wander about the steep, tortured alleyways of their mountain village unadorned with a rifle. Orgosolo is the historic lair of Sard banditismo—banditry. Perhaps the businesses of thieving and buccaneering seem more gainful in Calabria, for now, the only rapscallions left in Orgosolo are the political artists whose bullying, bitter-sermoned murals irritate walls, housefronts, mountain faces. Too, icons are chafed, gastronomically, in Orgosolo, as they are here in this dish, which asks for bottarga as well as pecorino, upsetting the proscription, for a moment, against the mingling of fish and cheese.

Recipe notes

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