Trailing Off....: Eating for Longevity

culurgiones

One reason I chose to go to Sardinia is that it is one of the five "Blue Zones" (more here), which include Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Okinawa, Japan; and Nicoya, Costa Rica. People in these places tend to live longer, with a better quality of health. Movement, community, spirituality, and of course, diet, all contribute to this phenomenon. Though I highly doubt that the average Sardinian stuffs their face as much as I did on this holiday, I was able to get a sense of how using fresh, local ingredients and long-standing traditional recipes makes for a healthy daily diet.

Because Sardinia is an island, one might imagine platefuls of plump shrimp or white fish dressed in rich green olive oil, garlic, and herbs or bowls of linguine with clams. However, seafood was not part of the traditional fare as people mostly lived inland due to constant threat from invaders and pirates. Therefore, lamb, goat, cured meats, a myriad of cheeses, and a variety of vegetables and grains graced the family dinner table. The invaders who did get in (and there have been several) left their imprint on the menu with couscous like pasta, saffron, chickpeas, and lentils, to name a few.

eggplant, fava beans, potatoes, and flatbread in the background

The first dish I tried was culurgiones (see first picture), ravioli stuffed with cheese, potato, and mint and covered in a rich tomato sauce and sprinkled with pecorino. Whereas the round, hard pinkish vegetable you buy in Ireland can barely choke out "tomato", the tomato in Sardinian belts out an aria that reverberates long after the fork is put down. The cheese, potato, and mint work in a perfect harmony to accompany the tomatic opera. Other pasta dishes were equally moving and I enjoyed them more than once.

malloreddus, a gnocchi like pasta flavoured with saffron, with goat sauce

When in Italy, I don't usually order the "secondi" because it's just a hunk of meat that's been grilled or braised, food which I grew up on. But we had to try two of the specialities, roasted suckling pig (porcedu) and braised goat with thyme. The suckling pig had to be ordered a day in advance. It was entirely too much meat, but I did enjoy experiencing the actual taste of pork again. What is sold in the supermarket might as well be made from a slipper.

a heaping pile of pork

Seafood has become more popular now that people don't feel they need to hide in the mountains. I'm not a huge fan of the frutti del mare, but I went out of my comfort zone and ordered a large antipasti of dishes I'd never heard of or tried. Beautiful to look at and even more beautiful to eat. Gnocchi with a saffron and shrimp sauce was pretty amazing and the ravioli stuffed with shrimp and scallops and sprinkled with fish roe dust wasn't too shabby either. But really, at the end of the day, just give me a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce!

colourful yumminess

Of course, what trip to Italy would be complete without pizza? The fact that we had to wait several days to go the pizzeria made the giant discs that much more delicious. How any place can serve pizza that hasn't been cooked in a wood-burning oven is beyond me. Yes, I've become a pizza snob.

sent from heaven

This year, I started eating vegetarian/vegan meals Monday-Thursday and then enjoying a little meat at the weekend, maybe in the form of a homemade cheeseburger or some sort of slow-cooked taco filling. It's my own small way of leaving a smaller carbon footprint, while also becoming healthier. If everyone ate less meat, perhaps we wouldn't need to imprison animals in tiny boxes until we're ready to eat them. They could graze in wide open spaces in the sunshine and in the process, become even more delicious! Sardinia is a place that reminds us that food reflects the history of a place and when healthy and scrumptious, shouldn't be forgotten. But more importantly, it shows us that locally-produced, non-processed, lovingly made cuisine is the stuff of a long and healthy life.