Between Mount Arbu and Mount Arrubiu, 16 kilometers from Cagliari,
there is the village of Capoterra.
In this village, that has a population of 15,000
inhabitants, a tasty tradition has been handed down. This is the place
where between the chatting, the old women of the village are involved with
the making of the {\em trofie}, a characteristic type of pasta
which is well-known for its tendency to not over-cook. This old tradition is now in the expert hands of only a few people, who patiently still work the pastry.
Since 1980 the trofie have appeared on the menu of "Sa Cardiga e su Schironi". In Winter, their taste is influenced by the sea-urchins which makes them one of the most popular dishes. In summer, the flavour is influenced by {\em pesto} and prawns, which still capture the attention of our customers.
Below, we present our recipe for the trofie with sea-urchins. Just to give you an idea of how carefully the trofie are prepared, we can tell you that it takes a whole day in the expert hands of one of the elderly women of Capoterra to produce only one kilogram of this prized pasta.
Whilst cooking al dente 240 grams of the excellent homemade
Sardinian dumplings (trofie), fry one glass of pure olive-oil
and four cloves of garlic thinly sliced in an iron pan.
Twelve sea-urchins will provide the red and fragrant eggs, which, once
melted in a cup, have to be mixed in the pan with the dumplings after
the water has been drained off.
The grated pink bottariga of mullet is slowly melted with the
other ingredients. The dish should be served hot, with a generous
amount of chopped parsley.