Fregola Sarda

I love pasta. I love the names. I love the shapes. I love pasta's versatility. My pantry is full of pasta. There's ditalini, mini penne, mini wheels, stellette, fettucine, rigatoni, paccheri, orecchiete, folie di ulivo, and fregola sarda. Yep, that's a lot.

It's a rainy October day, one where it's damp and chilly, and a pot of soup sounds warm and comforting. And I made a pot of soup, Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup. The recipe calls for orzo and I usually have orzo, except not today. And my goal is to use a lot of this pasta before I buy anymore and plus I just didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store in the rain.

In place of the orzo, I used fregola sarda. What is fregola sarda? First of all it's pronounced FREG-o-lah or FRAY-go-lah. 

Fregola is made from course semolina which gives it a rustic character. The pasta is rolled into tiny bits, dried, and then toasted, which changes the color and gives it a nutty flavor. 

The fregola worked very well in the soup. It got soft but not mushy. Orzo gets mushy.

So, I'm kind of in love with this fregola and I'm looking at all kinds of recipes to try with it. There's about 3/4 of a package left so I must choose wisely. I'm NOT going to buy anymore fregola until there's a significant dent in my pantry pasta supply. Wonder what my family will think of pasta for the next two weeks...

Ciao!

(You can find the recipe for Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup at http://housedustandwanderlust.blogspot.com/2013/01/italian-sausage-vegetable-soup_22.html)