Expert Eaters
How to Find the Best Food in any City + Fregola Recipe + La Ciccia + Sardinian Vino
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How do you find the best restaurants in a city? Ask the people who work with them.
Notice I said work with them. People who work in restaurants don’t have time to eat out a lot – they are working. People who supply the restaurants, that’s another story. It is their job to be in and out of restaurants all day, every day. It is also their job to patronize those restaurants as a sign of support. And whether the supplier is selling foraged mushrooms or natural wine, they are probably in this business because they love food. Now that is a person whose dinner recommendation I trust.
When I worked in sales in the beverage business, I spent a lot of hours riding in cars with sales representatives, or ‘reps’ – the on-the-ground suppliers responsible for the direct relationships with restaurants. Over the years I have had reps take me to eat cheese-stuffed jalapenos doused in soy sauce (better than it sounds) at a divey Mexican restaurant in Indio. I’ve eaten live shrimp at a sushi restaurant in Salt Lake City. I’ve eaten crocodile at a farm outside Orlando, my rental car parked in a dirt lot next to a pen with full-sized, very much alive versions of these giant lizards. Every one of those food adventures happened because I got in a car and asked, “Where do you like to eat around here?”
It was thanks to one such conversation in San Francisco that I discover La Ciccia, a Sardinian restaurant that would become something of an obsession.
Tucked into a cozy dining room in the Noe Hill neighborhood, it is the kind of unassuming, out-of-the-way spot that needs to be excellent to survive. In a city that is no stranger to Italian food, what makes La Ciccia stand out is its proud embrace of Sardinian cuisine. For the many people who have walked through La Ciccia’s doors in the last sixteen years, they may not have found spaghetti and meatballs, but they have been well rewarded with discoveries: like spaghettini in garlic olive oil with bottarga, and stewed baby octopus in spicy tomato sauce. Where else but a restaurant devoted to authentic regional Italian cuisine is one likely to come across a dish like fregola in a sauce of sea urchin and cured tomato heart?
In 2018, my husband and I traveled to Sardinia over the Easter holiday. Inspired by the food at La Ciccia, fueled by many bottles of Sardinian Vermentino, plans were cemented thanks to reports of hiking trails along cliffs jutting up from pristine turquoise waters of the Mediterranean. The local cuisine, wine and hiking were even better than it had appeared in our imaginations. So good was the food - oh those endless platters of pasta at the agriturismo! - it was the only hiking vacation I’ve returned from having gained weight.
Since I cannot eat at La Ciccia or travel to Sardinia every week, I learned to recreate a bit of the taste at home, with a dish of fregola with sausage in saffron and tomato sauce. Like its cousin, Israeli couscous, fregola is made from semolina flour and shaped into small balls, larger than traditional couscous. These small balls are then toasted, giving the final dish, however prepared, a nutty flavor and toothsome texture. Light some candles and open a bottle of Cannonau and I could almost be in the cozy dining room in San Francisco, or across the ocean on a Mediterranean island.
How many great food experiences have I had in my life thanks to the recommendation of an unheralded expert? If not for La Ciccia, there would have been no trip to Sardinia. If not for the sales rep, it might have taken me longer to discover the restaurant. If not for the question, he might never have shared his favorite restaurant.
So next time you see a well-dressed, perhaps a bit road weary professional saddled up to a bar with a wine logo emblazoned on a rolling bag, or walking out of the back door of a restaurant during prep hours, considering stopping to ask – where do you like to eat around here? You might be surprised where the answer will take you.
Recipe
Fregola with Sausage, Tomatoes and Saffron
Note: This one pan dish serves four. Don’t skimp on the ingredients. With only a few items, use the best you can find. You can substitute Israeli or Pearled Couscous (larger than traditional couscous) for the fregola if you cannot find it. If using couscous, toast the pasta in a dry pan for a few minutes stirring frequently, until some of the grains begin to brown. This will mimic the toasty flavor of traditional fregola.
2 T. olive oil plus additional
1 lb. Italian sausage, removed from casing
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large pinch chili flakes (optional)
3 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 ½ cup boiling water
1 generous pinch saffron
2 T. tomato paste
3 cups (1 lb.) fregola or Pearled Couscous
4 cups chicken stock
Salt
Pepper
¼ cup chopped parsley
Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy pot over medium high heat. Add sausage to olive oil. Sauté for several minutes breaking up sausage with a wooden spoon. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl.
While sausage is browning, mix boiling water, saffron and tomato paste in a small bowl. Allow saffron to “bloom” for at least 5 minutes.
After removing sausage from the pan, if there is not enough oil remaining, add more olive oil so there is about 3 T. of fat in the pan between the sausage drippings and the oil. Reduce heat to medium. Add garlic and chili flakes and sauté for two minutes until softened. Add tomatoes and stir for several minutes until tomatoes start to collapse. Add fregola to the pan and cook for 2 minutes until it has absorbed some of the liquid. Add the saffron-tomato water and cook, stirring, until liquid is almost absorbed. Add chicken stock along with a bit of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium low. Stir sausage back into the pot. Let cook for 10 - 15 minutes stirring frequently until liquid is mostly absorbed and fregola is tender but still chewy. Remove the pot from heat and stir in parsley. Serve immediately with a generous sprinkle of Pecorino.
To Drink…
Surrau Branu Vermentino di Gallura DOCG, Sardinia, Italy 2022
If you flip over the menu at La Ciccia, you will find the back side of the single sheet crammed with a bottle list so vast a magnifying glass may be necessary to read the tiny font. In addition to the broadest selection of Sardinian wines I have encountered outside of the island, it is also an excellent place to find a variety of Sicilian wines and big names from Piedmont to Tuscany.
Those of us not lucky enough to live in the same city as La Ciccia need not worry, these days it is fairly easy to find at least one Vermentino or Cannonau at most wine sellers.
Sardinia has a winemaking history dating back at least to Roman times. More recently, the dry, breezy climate has made for ideal conditions for organic viticulture at growers across the island.
If you are new to Sardinian wines and looking for where to start, train your sights on the Northeast of the island. It was here, inland from the billionaire yachts that dot the Costa Smeralda in the summer months, that Vermentino di Gallura was given Sardinia’s first DOCG (Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita) designation. Surrau’s Branu Vermentino di Gallura 2022 has the concentration of flavor the appellation is known for with stony minerality and floral notes.
Argiolas, one of the largest producers in Sardinia, seems to have the widest global distribution. Their entry level whites are a great introduction to the saline, mineral, bright lemony freshness of Vermentino as well as velvety reds based around the Cannonau (Grenache) grape.
Surrau Branu Vermentino di Gallura 2022 from $22 at Wine Connection and others
Argiolas wines from $15 at Wine.com, Whole Foods and others