Anyone who has been to Sardinia, even just once, can’t help but love them madly. Seadas are the Sardinian dessert par excellence. A type of closed pocket of semolina pastry filled with cheese, it looks like a large ravioli, usually with a round shape. First it’s fried, and then, before being eaten, drizzled with honey – a mix of truly unmistakable flavors which have ancient origins.
Seadas and their humble origins
The origins of the name are debatable. According to some sources, it came from Spanish (Sardinia was controlled by Spain from the late 1400s until 1714) and describes the two halves that make up the pastry case of this dessert. Others, however, believe it is linked to the Latin term sebum, which is more to do with the well-established custom of using animal fat (su seu, in Sardinian) in the pastry, rather than the appearance of the seadas. There are very few doubts, however, about the nature of the dish itself, and its simple ingredients. While seadas are now the island’s queen of desserts, originally it was a dish created by shepherds and peasants. Not necessarily a dessert. In fact, it may have been a main course, or quite possibly the only course.
The secret is in the pastry
The main secret of this dessert is the pastry with which it is made. It’s called pasta violata, or “abused pastry,” made with semolina flour and lard, or, more rarely, with semolina and olive oil. Semolina flour is coarser than regular flour, it has a different consistency, a golden color and an unmistakable aroma. Lard is added to the flour, in proportions of 1 ounce of lard for every 5 ounces of flour, and it is then worked by hand which takes a long time, given that it is continuously flattened, stretched out and folded over, until the ideal consistency is obtained: it must be smooth, even and elastic.
Aromatic filling
The cherry on top is the cheese filling (usually Pecorino), acidified to the point where it becomes perfectly stringy after cooking, and often flavored with grated lemon zest. The tang of the cheese, together with the aromatic and enveloping taste of the warmed honey, makes seadas a gastronomic gem whose fame has deservedly gone beyond the borders of Sardinia.