Culurgiones

Culurgiones are one of the most famous signature dishes from Sardinia and they are easily recognisable by their characteristic shape that looks like a wheat ear (spiga or spighitta in Sardinian language). The biggest difficulty people face when making this type of stuffed pasta is the closure of the pastry, which is what gives the culurgiones their distinctive appearance.

This pasta shape itself represents the link between the agropastoral tradition of the wheat as a raw material for the production of fresh pasta and the skilful dexterity of Sardinian women. This type of ravioli are recognised by pasta makers from all over the world as one of the hardest pasta shapes to make. 

Culurgiones can now be found all over Sardinia but they originate from Ogliastra, a town in the central-eastern part of Sardinia.

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Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the dough 

• Semolina 300 g 
• Water 150 g 

For the filling 

• Potato 1kg  
• Garlic 1 
• Oil 20 ml 
• Pecorino fresco 100 g 
• Pecorino aged 100 g 
• Mint 20 g

Method

1. Peel, chop and boil the potatoes until fully cooked. Now mash the potatoes with the help of a potato masher inside a big bowl and add the chopped garlic, the grated fresh and aged pecorino cheese, the thinly chopped mint, olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Taste and adjust the seasoning however you prefer. Cover and keep in the fridge.
2. Make the semolina pasta dough by following the method in this recipe here - Semolina dough - but use 300g of semolina and 150 ml of water instead of the measurements in this recipes as this culurgiones recipe serves 4.
3. Roll out the semolina dough until it’s 0.3mm thick and cut the sheet into lots of 8cm discs. Working with one disc at a time, put a tablespoons of stuffing in the middle and close with the classic spike closure technique, as shown in the video here (don't worry if you add too much filling as this will come out while closing the culurgione). To give them their distinctive spiked shape, pinch the end and fold it onto itself towards the filling, and repeat it until you close the culurgione. Place them on a floured tray, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for a maximum of 2 days or freeze them and eat them within 3 months.
4. Now you can make a simple tomato sauce to accompany your culurgiones. On a medium heat add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small pan, a skinless clove of garlic and a few basil leaves. Fry gently for 2 minutes and add 350ml of passata. Add a pinch of salt a slowly cook your sauce for 20 minutes.
5. Cook the culurgiones in plenty of salted boiling water for 4-5 minutes or 2 minutes from the moment they start floating in the water.
6. Now spread 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce on the bottom of each pasta bowl, add some grated pecorino cheese and serve around 4 to 5 culurgiones on top. Drizzle with olive oil, more grated pecorino cheese and garnish with some mint or basil.

Click here to read our Culurgiones blog.

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