Fregola Sarda, the Perfect Lunchy Brunch Dish
Fregola is a beautiful, tasty Sardinian pasta made from hard durum wheat flour - rolled, sun-dried, and toasted to a mix of shades of yellow, gold, and brown. It's so good.
I thought we could welcome spring with one of my favorite recipes from Near & Far. It's the perfect lunchy, brunch dish, and it's made with fregola. Fregola is a beautiful, tasty Sardinian pasta made from hard durum wheat flour - rolled, sun-dried, and toasted to a mix of shades of yellow, gold, and brown. The pasta is rustic and nutty, each grain with a raggy surface adept at catching flavor. It's so good.
Let's Make Something with Fregola!
Toss the fregola with ribbons of endive, toasted hazelnuts, capers and basil, and you have a salad that is a little bit nutty, a hint briny, herbaceous, and filling. I tend to make this during shoulder seasons. As spring evolves into summer, or as summer shifts into fall -- tweaking the herbs based on what is available and vibrant. It's also amazing with roasted cherry tomatoes mid-summer. A long way of saying that it's hard to go wrong here.
It's worth sourcing fregola if you can. That said, this is also great using orzo pasta, or Israeli couscous. I like the grip of the fregola, but sleeker orzo is always a crowd pleaser. if you're looking for other pasta ideas, here are all my favorite pasta recipes. This homemade cavatelli is super fun, same goes for this pici or pappardelle - and you can never go wrong with homemade pesto. Enjoy!
More Pasta Salad Recipes
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Fregola Sarda
If you have trouble finding endives, substitute another shredded chicory or radicchio.
- 3 large eggs
- fine-grain sea salt
- 1 1/4 cups fregola (or orzo, Israeli couscous)
- 1/4 cup / 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup / 45g capers, rinsed and patted dry
- 2 medium cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 lemon
- 2 or 3 medium endives, cored & cut into 1/2-inch ribbons
- 1/2 cup / 15g torn fresh basil
- 1/3 cup / 45g chopped toasted hazelnuts
- optional: a sprinkling of dried currants
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Place the eggs in a pot and cover with cold water by 1/2 inch or so. Bring to a gentle boil. Turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for exactly 10 minutes. Have a big bowl of ice water ready and when the eggs are done cooking, place them in the ice bath for 3 minutes or so--long enough to stop the cooking. Peel, grate on a box grater, toss with a couple pinches of salt, and set aside.
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Bring at least 8 cups of water to a boil, salt the water generously, add the fregola, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes (or follow the package instructions). You want it al dente, not at all mushy. Drain, rinse lightly with cold water, and shake off as much residual moisture as possible.
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While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the capers and garlic and cook until the capers burst and start to brown. Remove from the heat, discard the garlic, and stir in 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
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To serve, transfer the fregola to a large bowl or platter. Pour the contents of the skillet on top of the pasta and give it a good toss. Add the zest from the lemon and about 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice -- a good, generous squeeze. Add the endives, basil, and most of the hazelnuts and toss again. Taste and adjust seasoning before finishing with the grated eggs, remaining hazelnuts, and currants.
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Comments
A friend sent me this asking if I use fregula which I do, typically in cold salads. My mother is from Italy. I noticed that under your ingredient list next to fregula you have: (orzo, Israeli couscous) When I use fregula, I cook the largest size. And I also mix it with cooked Israeli couscous which is a step down in size. My third addition is cooked quinoa which is smaller still. The combination of the three is great both flavor and texture- wise. Orzo in America typically refers to rice-shaped pasta. But in Italy, orzo is barley…..which is also a wonderful addition.
This is one of my all time favorite recipes (not just favorite from your cookbooks !). I make a batch for several work lunches, and just add the endive, egg, & hazelnut at work. So good!! Especially with cannonau wine:)
I made this recipe. Cooking for one so halved recipe. Used radicchio had on hand- I think the color was nicer. It was very good and I’ll make it again.
This looks delicious! I saw it on the Chromecast picture feed on my tv and was really curious. I’m planning to make this, and would have to veganize it 🙂
I made this with whole wheat orzo instead of fregola and shaved fennel instead of endive. I chopped the eggs instead of grating them, and had a heavy hand with the basil, hazelnuts, and currants. It was lovely and went fast at the brunch table. One of my guests said “I’ve never tasted anything quite like this” – definitely a new standby in our Sunday rotation.
HS: Thanks for the note Anne! Glad you enjoyed it, and nice orzo swap!
What a delicious dish!! In regional dialect — Friuli Venezia-Giulia — I grew up associating the word fregole as crumbs. If you look at the pasta it does look like small crumbs. I’ll definitely be trying out the recipe.
Never heard of it, but “toasty” is right up my alley. I’ll have to find it mailorder, I suppose! Looks wonderful and easy. Thank you!
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