Eugenia lives in Montresta, a tiny village in north-west Sardinia. Her house has mountain views. You approach her home through a happy mix of flowers and herbs, and it takes a moment to notice she has a second kitchen to the side of one terrace. It looks like a garden shed, but inside it has a special kind of pasta beater only found in Sardinia, a freezer and all sorts of bottling equipment. It's a secret cave for keen cooks.
Fregula is Sardinian for fregola - the name used to describe little balls of pasta, which can be toasted. Eugenia says, "Fregula was invented to give texture and interest to pulses and vegetables." While most people these days buy their fregula, Eugenia magics hers into existence in less than an hour. The method is the same process as for making couscous and you will need the more coarsely ground, sandy-textured semolina.
One of the many other things Eugenia makes herself are intensely savoury sun-dried tomatoes. She slices plum-shaped tomatoes in half, sprinkles the cut surfaces with a little coarse salt, and leaves them in a huge, flat, reed basket to dry in the sun. She then covers each half with a basil leaf and freezes them until needed. Her tomatoes are sweet, not too salty and an instant pick-me-up for all kinds of dishes.
For the soup
9 oz dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 onion, sliced
A handful of wild fennel fronds, chopped
4 good-quality sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle
Instructions
Place the chickpeas in a bowl and cover with enough water to submerge them by several centimetres. Soak them for 8 hours, or ideally overnight. Then drain them.
To make the pasta, dissolve the salt in the water in a small bowl. Splash a bit into a large mixing bowl (Eugenia uses a flat-bottomed earthenware dish with a diameter of about 15 3/4 inch), followed by a couple of tablespoons of the semolina.
Using the tips of your fingers, stir the flour into the water using a circular motion. Little balls of dough will begin to form. Alternate adding more water and flour, making sure there is never too much of either. You will start to create fregula of varying sizes, but ideally they should be about the same size as a small chickpea. Remove them as you go along and spread them on a tray to dry out. Keep going until you have used all the flour. Divide your pasta into large and small fregula, by shaking your tray - the large ones will rise to the surface.
Put the chickpeas, onion, fennel fronds and sun-dried tomatoes in a large saucepan. Cover with enough water to submerge the contents by about 4 inches. Simmer until the chickpeas are soft, which will take about 1 hour. Once they are cooked, add all except the very smallest fregula (which can be used as the starter for your next batch) and simmer for a couple of minutes to cook through.
Ladle into bowls, and serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Heaven.
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