making + eating su filindeu pasta {sardinia}

During an otherwise tedious  Sardinian Tourism Board press conference about 4 years ago,   I discovered one of the rarest pasta in Italy:  su filindeu. In a far corner of the room, crowded with journalists,  a lone woman had set up a table, where  flour, water and salt were magically being pulled into the thinnest strands of pasta I had ever seen. I stood mesmerized, made a short video, and vowed I would somehow make it back to Sardinia one day to find out more about this pasta. When I started working on my latest book Eating My Way Through Italy, I decided that this was the time. My search eventually led me to one of the most remote and isolated areas of Sardinia where I tracked down Paola Abraini, one of only a handful of women who know how to make this pasta. 

By the time I arrived at Paola’s apartment, I had been thinking about su filindeu, and reading about it, for about two years. In the meantime there had been a Jamie Oliver video floating around Facebook and so I assumed it was not that much of a secret thing any more. But as I drove around Sardinia the two days before my appointment with Paola, I had a curious reaction from any Sardinian I mentioned su filindeu to. They had no idea what I was talking about. At all. I’d start to explain that it was thin pasta that was stretched by hand and then eaten in broth. Still a blank stare. So rare was this pasta that not even people who lived an hour away from the village had even heard of it.

Paola lives in the city of Nuoro, located in the central part of Sardinia, far from the sea. She had invited me to her home, an apartment on the 3rd floor of a modern building, and into her small kitchen, where — over the course of a few hours — I had a crash course in stretching dough.

The pasta (which is made for a religious holiday)  is rarely served in restaurants, and only very locally. And if you do find some where that serves it, it is certain that either Paola, or one of her relatives, has made it. Paola apologized that day that she couldn’t serve me a bowl of soup, but explained that her apartment is very small, she had other things to do, and besides “It’s quite time consuming to make.” Although making a bowl of broth seemed pretty simple after the acrobatic and slightly magical feat of stretching the noodles.

But Paola didn’t leave me high and dry, since she had put me in touch with an agriturismo (farm hotel) where she promised they would make it for me. And in fact, as I left, she handed me a pack of su filindeu she had made the previous day, already dried up, cut into manageable sheets, and ready to go. “Give these to Bastiano, he is expecting them.”

Here below is the video I made of that special day in Sardinia. And if you’d like to know more, there is an entire chapter about my adventures leaning about Su Flindeu in my book Eating My Way Through Italy.

And if you’re curious about my adventures in Sardinia and the rest of Italy you can buy my newest book, Eating My Way Through Italy : Heading Off the Main Roads to Discover the Hidden Treasure of the Italian Table. 

For more of my favorite places to stay and eat in Italy make sure you download my app EAT ITALY. ,  Eat Italy is a free app, with many cities and regions available as in-app purchases (Venice, Rome and Florence) or completely free (Puglia, Umbria, Torino, Naples, Milan and more coming). EAT ITALY is available to iPhone or Android. 

I also lead week long tours in Umbria, Rome and Puglia. I’d love it if you could join me!