Sebadas

Appearance & taste

Sebadas are round or oval and consist of two sheets of dough with wavy, sometimes decorated, or smooth edges. Each sheet is 0.5 to 3 mm thick and 40 to 180 mm in diameter; one piece weighs 30 to 300 g, of which dough and filling each make up 40 to 60 %. When fresh they are soft, with an even dough. The dough is ivory white to straw-yellow, the filling white to straw-yellow, possibly with yellow or orange streaks from the lemon or orange peel.

The taste is sour and aromatic, of varying intensity depending on the cheese mixture, with notes of citrus fruit and a contrast of salty and sweet; the smell shows the essential oils of the citrus fruit. According to the specification, the product lives from the contrast between the dough, made short by the lard, and the fresh, stringy, sour cheese of the filling.

Production

The dough is made from durum wheat semolina, re-milled durum wheat semolina and/or soft wheat flour, with up to 20 % lard and egg yolk, salt and water as needed. The filling consists of cheese made from sheep’s, goat’s and/or cow’s milk or of curd (cagliata) made from cow’s milk, with lemon or orange peel and sugar as needed. If the filling is prepared at a high temperature, the label may refer to the old recipe for melting the filling.

All processing up to the finished product and the packing take place in Sardinia. The reason given is the transport from the island, which takes more than 48 hours and can impair the characteristics of the fresh pasta. Sebadas are sold fresh, packed in a protective atmosphere or deep-frozen, and loose only when fresh and in labelled containers. Catering businesses in Sardinia may also use the name for their own sebadas.

Origin & history

The area covers the whole of Sardinia including its archipelagos. According to the specification, sebadas arose as an expression of the island’s agro-pastoral culture, and making them never spread beyond Sardinia. Semolina, cheese and lard come from this economy; the island’s isolation kept outside influences away. In the past sebadas were made by hand for home use; today they are also made industrially, by a method that has changed little.

They are well known because, although they are pasta, they are not boiled in water but fried: in traditional cuisine they are then drizzled with honey or sprinkled with sugar and served hot as a dessert. The name is documented, among other sources, in Max Leopold Wagner’s “Dizionario Etimologico Sardo” (first published 1928), in Grazia Deledda’s essays on the folk culture of Nuoro (1893–1895) and in Gian Paolo Caredda’s “Gastronomia in Sardegna” (1981).