''Fregula'' (often incorrectly written ''fregola''
) is a type of
semolina
Semolina is the name given to roughly milled durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and sweet puddings. The term ''semolina'' is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or ma ...
pasta
Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...
from the
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
region of
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
Description
The first references to ''Fregula'' date back to the 14th century, it is produced in varying sizes but typically consists of a
semolina
Semolina is the name given to roughly milled durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and sweet puddings. The term ''semolina'' is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or ma ...
dough that has been rolled into balls 2–3 mm in diameter and toasted in an oven. It is similar to
Acini di pepe
(; ) is a type of pasta. is the plural of whose root is the Latin word ''acinus''. In both Latin and Italian, the word means 'grape' or 'grape-stones', with the "stones of a grape" being the seeds of the grape. then translates into 'seeds o ...
and
Couscous
Couscous () is a traditional North African dish a quote: “Couscous or seksu (Image 1) in Berber language or kuskus in Arabic is by origin a Numidian (the Berber population of Numidia) dish…” of small steamed granules of rolled semolina ...
though the physical form of the pasta is closer to
Maftoul as well as Moghrabieh. As it dates back to the 14th century it is currently unknown if the method was derived from North African couscous recipes brought to Sardinia by immigrants or if it was developed independently.
A typical preparation of ''fregula'' is to simmer it in a
tomato
The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...
-based
sauce
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...
with
clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...
s.
Fregula con Vongole
(Fregula with Clams)
See also
* Cuisine of Sardinia
The cuisine of Sardinia is the traditional cuisine of the island of Sardinia, and the expression of its culinary art. It is characterised by its own variety and by the fact of having been enriched through a number of interactions with the other ...
* List of pasta
There are many different varieties of pasta. They are usually sorted by size, being long (), short (), stuffed (), cooked in broth (), stretched () or in dumpling-like form (). Yet, due to the variety of shapes and regional variants, "one man's ...
* Orzo
References
Types of pasta
Cuisine of Sardinia
{{Pasta-stub