Agriturismo Testone

I was trying to work out how to title this post as this particular place we visited had so much going on that I could not find an appropriate title except to name the place we had visited.

Agriturismo Testone is located near the town of Nuoro. It is here that we were shown how pane carasau is made (in this case organic pane carasau). Once the dough was shaped correctly, the ladies then started baking them in a hot wood fired oven. After the first round of baking, the bread is sliced through the 2 layers and rebaked. At the first round of baking, the bread is called panelenntu and can be eaten at this point. It is only at the point of the second round of baking that the bread is called pane carasau. Fascinating stuff!

Panellenntu

Pane carasau

We were then treated to a pasta making demonstration by Paola. She was exceptionally good at handling the dough and was very patient in showing all of us how to stretch the pasta to eventually become Filindeus (translated to God's hair). The final result was the stretched pasta was so fine, it looked like hair. She made it look so easy but we found out later on that Paola had to study this fine art for a whole year before she felt that she had mastered it to a satisfactory point.

Deb was the first of the group brave enough to attempt stretching the pasta. Others who had a go at it were Pietro, Lindy, Warwick, Annette, Maeve, Denise and yours truly. My travel group knows about my blog and I had to promise to post a photo of myself attempting to stretch the pasta. So here are some of the participants.

Deb

Lindy

Me

While waiting for our lunch we visited a shepherd's hut. This was where the shepherd's use to stay when they were working in the farm shepherding the sheep. There is so much history here and the same can be said about the farmstead we were in.

Shepherd's hut

The interior of the hut

Lunch was another wonderful experience. As per Italian tradition, we started with an antipasto platter. We then had the filindeus pasta in mutton broth with pecorino. Admittedly, the dish itself did not look attractive but it was delicious. For those of Chinese origin who is reading this post, the texture of the cooked filindeus is very similar to 'mee suah'.

Mutton broth with filindeus pasta

We then had anzoneddu which was baby lamb stewed with wild fennel. The lamb was so tender. Loved it!

Anzoneddu

Then we had a dessert dish. It was called Seada. This is a traditional Sardinian dessert made of pastry filled with 1 week old pecorino, deep fried and drizzled with country honey. Note that the pecorino has to be unsalted and unpasteurised. Delicious!

Seada

Along the way to the farm, we saw so many cork trees. Cork is prevalent throughout Sardinia. So here is one of the photos I managed to take of the cork tree.

Once again, it was another great afternoon and an experience that I would not have wanted to miss!

Sebastiano (wearing the apron) - our host and chef