Dine On Rock Lobsters And Sea Urchins In Sardinia
There’s more to Capocaccia one of the most beautiful spots of Mediterranean than Alghero, the main town of this bay, which is a real jewel where the blue of the sea meets the gold of the chalk cliffs and Bosa a picturesque fishing village with its colorful little houses. Tourists flock to Capocaccia because it’s a paradise for anyone looking for rock lobsters or sea urchins.
Only a strip of west coast, which is a small part of Sardinia, is
renowned for its rock lobster: stretching from Capocaccia in the north, through Alghero, down to Bosa in the south. If you’re fond of seafood herein lies a wealth of delicious fish and of rock lobsters encrusted like jewels in the picturesque cliffs.
These areas seem more like Catalan than Sardinia in atmosphere because a thousand years ago this area around Alghero was conquered by Catalonia invaders. The Sardinians are traditionally a pastoral folk and the Sardinian diet does not lean toward the sea but the Catalans from Alghero - known as Barcelloneta - Bosa, and Capocaccia have been fishermen since time immemorial and had always lived in close contact with the sea.
Traditionally special nets, known as nasse, are used to catch rock lobsters. These are long nets drawn over a structure - formerly made from rushes, but nowadays constructed from wire - to make a tunnel. The rock lobsters are lured to swim into the wide opening using calamari as bait and are trapped in the smaller funnel opening. To ensure that the lobsters remain fresh until they were sold, fishermen of yore used to tie their nasse to the boat, keeping the catch alive in the seawater below. Today, modern ships have refrigeration equipment and the traditional methods of keeping the catch fresh have ceased to exist except for some.
What to local and foreign tourists is a delicacy is actually a staple food to Alghero’s fisher folk. To save their palate from getting weary of rock lobsters, the housewives and cooks of Alghero devised so many different ways of cooking them. In most kitchens, though, they dish them up in a stew with precious potatoes and vegetables.
