Island life
In her new cookbook Bitter Honey, chef LETITIA CLARK explores the food and culture of Sardinia, where meals are never a hurried affair.
Italian cooking is adored worldwide because it is the food of home, and is therefore, ultimately, comfort food. Comfort food is food that makes you either feel at home, or think of home. It doesn’t matter where you are, or whose home you happen to be in, it just instils in you that warm, fuzzy feeling that you’re somewhere safe, eating something good, and all is not lost.
I am not Italian – not even close – but somehow, Italian food takes me home.
The glory of Italian food, and the reason why it remains so endlessly popular, is that it is essentially home-cooking. Just like Mamma used to make. It’s a crashing cliché, but that doesn’t stop it being true.
So how does the food of Sardinia differ, or compare? Sardinian food is a distilled version of Italian food: simpler, more rustic, more wild. The emphasis on tradition and on the importance of eating well is even more pronounced here on this forgotten island. Even more of its ancient delicacies are preserved, even more of its produce grown or made at home.
Sardinia has become my home. As soon as I moved to the island, I was reminded that good food is not about being a slave to authenticity, or about complication, technique, or trends, but about sharing, about people and – most importantly – about enjoyment. The Sardinians I have met have welcomed me into their homes. They have shared their time, their knowledge, their meals and their recipes, with no motive other than their immense love for life, for their land and their cuisine.