Sardegna

Two summers ago I was newly pregnant with Sage, and E and I had just planned our summer vacation.  We were flying into Rome and out of Milan, and hoping to meet our Milanese friends somewhere along the way.  We had about 9 days (one work week and two weekends on each end).  Then our Italian friends invited us to stay with them in Sardinia.  I had heard of the island before, but barely knew where it was on the map.  We followed the hard rule of “guests are like fish, they start to stink after three days” and decided to FLY in for 3 nights!  I expected to sleep on grandma’s couch, instead we were put up in a beautiful 2 br/2 bath apt with a gorgeous view of the sea. My memories from the trip are pretty vivid: Myla throwing up on 80% of the car rides we took, fresh figs picked off the trees; the SEA!  Those 3 days also made an impression on the kids because despite Myla’s motion sickness, she spoke about Sardinia almost daily for the last two years.

Then (2016):

Now (2018):

When we started planning the big trip we knew we had to include Sardinia, at least as a stopover.  Because initially we thought we would once again stay with our friends, we didn’t want to over stay our welcome and only planned for 8 nights.  But since both of us had additional babies (our two girls were born only 6 weeks apart) and they had family and help etc. we ended up renting an Airbnb house in the same gated golf course community and being only 2 minute walk from each other.  This was another fabulous Airbnb experience.  The house was a bit old, but it was perfect for us.  2 bedrooms with a bunk bed in the kids room, a kitchen with absolutely anything you may need, a huge outdoor oven/grill, and the perfect yard with gorgeous views of the sea!  We got to the house and the first thing we did was cut fresh flowers, pop open a bottle of Franciacorta and make an aperitivo:

Over the next nine days we fell more and more in love with Sardinia.  The crystal clear and calm waters, beautiful beaches, mountains (I even went hiking one morning), fresh delicious local produce and seafood. All on an island with a really nice low key family vibe.  At least this is what we felt in the south.  E has read that the north is a bit more shishy shishy French Riviera vibe, but it’s a big island and we pretty much stayed within a 30 minute drive of our house.

We stayed up late most nights and slept in “late” ~8:30 am, thanks to complete black out shades in the bedrooms.  Leisurely mornings spent out in our yard were followed by long days at the beach.  We would normally drive about 15-30 minutes to the beach depending which beach we were going to and stay there until the late afternoon/early evening.  On our way home we would stop by one of the many little farm stands lining the narrow roads and pick up fresh fruit and vegetables (fruta e verdure).  At the moment the locally grown peaches, apricots, tomatoes, and figs are in abundance and the kids devoured these, so we were restocking every evening on our way home.  I learned from  my friend Caro and started packing the fruit in an insulated bag with some ice packs for the long days at the beach.  When the kids would inevitably start asking for snacks, I had something cool, refreshing, and healthy to offer them.

We only ate out a few times while in Sardinia. Since our house and our friend’s grandmother’s home provided such beautiful backdrops and fresh produce and seafood is so easy to make at home, we were not really motivated to pack up 5 kids (in total) and drive to eat out.  I think one of our best meals at home was spaghetti vongole.  A simply prepared spaghetti with clams.  I have never cooked clams at home but one morning when visiting the market with our friends I saw the fish monger selling bags of clams.  That particular morning we were getting seafood to make on the grill but I made a mental note that I would be back for clams!  Almost a week later I finally made it back and got my bag of clams, and a package of some “fancy” “artisanal” spaghetti.  That day we stayed at the beach until almost 8 o’clock; after 6pm is seriously the best time at the beach!  We drove home late, sandy and tired.  All the kids fell asleep in the car and I was really questioning my dinner plans.  We quickly showered everyone and put Sage to sleep.  She had gotten into the habit of eating a lot throughout the day and going to sleep straight from the beach, so we weren’t concerned.  The big kids said they were not sure if they will wait up for our fancy dinner of spaghetti vongole, so while the clams soaked in VERY well salted cold water, I made them cheese sandwiches.

At this point it was probably 9pm.  E opened a bottle of wine and without the pressure of needing to hurry up and feed the kids, or put the baby to sleep, I got into the groove of making dinner.  Slowly warming up the olive oil with a couple cloves of smashed garlic to infuse the oil.  While we were at the beach our friends said they would stay in that night, but luckily provided some (ALL) guidance for cooking the clams.  Dinner came together quicker than expected.  After the kids’ catnap in the car and cheese sandwiches they seemed to get a second wind.  By 9:45 we were all sitting down at the small kitchen table to enjoy the fruit of our labor.

Recipe for spaghetti vongole alla Caro and Matti Fiorilli 🙂

Ingredients:
1kg (about 2 pounds) fresh clams
500 grams spaghetti
1-3 cloves of garlic
1-2 cups of wine
Finely chopped Parsley
Course sea salt
2-3 Tbsp good quality olive oil

Instructions:
-Rinse the clams, discard any open or broken clams.  Fill a large pot with cold water and lots of coarse sea salt.  Let the clams sit in the water for about an hour or 15 minutes 🙂
-In a large pan add a few tablespoons of olive oil and smashed garlic cloves, allow the oil to heat up on a low fire, slowly.
-Once the oil is hot, turn up the flame, add the wine, parsley and clams.  Cover with lid until you see the clams starting to open.
-At the same time have a tall pot of water boiling with a large pinch of coarse sea salt for the spaghetti.  cook the spaghetti according to package instructions.
-Once the clams open they are cooked.  In order to not overcook the clams, remove the open ones in to a side bowl.  At this point all the clams will open up pretty quickly.  Remove all the clams, and allow the sauce to simmer and thicken a bit.
-Drain the pasta but keep about a cup of the cooking water.
-Add the spaghetti to the sauce in the pan and the cooking water and put the clams back in.  Toss everything together, and add a little fresh parsley on top! Enjoy!

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