Seadas

Cut through the golden, thin pastry and the warm cheese stretches, as the honey on the surface layers with the saltiness of the milk. Seadas are a Sardinian filled and fried sweet made with flour, cheese, fat, and honey. Making the most of the cheese itself rather than a sweet filling, this sweet carries memories of meals celebrating the return of shepherds. The result changes depending on which milk is used and how the cheese is prepared before wrapping.

An example of seadas. Location and date unknown, Pietro Di Fontana (Photo source / CC BY-SA 4.0)

A sweet celebrating the shepherds’ return, and ingredients that vary by area

Sardinia’s traditional food product record states that women in the Barbagia region prepared this sweet in spring to welcome home shepherds who had grazed their flocks through the cold winter season. Behind the combination of flour, sheep’s milk cheese, fat, and honey in one dish lies this pastoral way of life spanning the seasons. Rooted in the pastoral table, the dish eventually spread as a dessert served warm after meals as well. While it has roots in the Nuoro area, it spread across the whole island.

In some areas, cow’s milk caciotta is used, not only sheep’s milk pecorino. The method from the Campidano is an example that combines cow’s milk cheese with lemon zest. Some recipes add egg to the pastry, which changes how it stretches and browns compared with pastry kneaded from flour and water alone. Even within a single island dish, the choice of milk and pastry varies.

Disks of cheese wrapped in thin dough

In the basic recipe (ingredient proportions and method), the pastry is made by combining durum wheat semolina with water, lard, and other ingredients, resting the dough, and rolling it out thinly. Lard distributes fat throughout the dough and gives crispness when fried. Rather than kneading in a large amount of sugar and making it rise like a cake, the pastry is finished as a thin layer that still keeps the filling from leaking.

For the cheese filling, young pecorino is used. In the method recorded in Sardinia’s register of traditional food products, slightly acidic pecorino is grated and warmed over low heat until it becomes a single stringy mass. Citrus zest is mixed in, and the mixture is pressed into disks about 6 centimeters in diameter, dried for several hours, and then wrapped in the thin pastry. Other home recipes fill the pastry directly, without heating the cheese or forming disks. Unlike hard, dry aged cheese, a cheese that softens when heated is chosen. The moisture and softness are adjusted so that the pastry and the filling cook at the same time during frying.

Seadas made at home. Location unknown, 2014, Japs 88 (Photo source / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Adding the aroma of honey after frying

Cheese is placed on a round of cut pastry, a second round is placed on top, and the edges are sealed firmly. The edges are sometimes cut decoratively, but what matters is keeping the cheese that melts inside from leaking out. When fried on both sides in oil, bubbles rise here and there on the thin pastry, and the inside warms and softens.

To finish, honey or sugar is used. In Sardinia, slightly bitter corbezzolo honey is also used. Beyond simply adding sweetness, it adds a slight bitterness to the flavors of the cheese and pastry. Because the honey is poured on after frying, its aroma stays on the surface.

The approach of adding sweetness to the flavor of the cheese, rather than replacing it with a sweet filling, has been carried on by modern cooks as well. There is also a savory adaptation filled with artichokes and cheese, and the technique of wrapping and frying is used for both sweets and savory dishes. Seadas made with cheese and honey are enjoyed while warm, savoring the crispness of the pastry and the stretch of the cheese together.

In the home of Francesca Degosciu in the village of Monti, grated peretta cheese is placed directly between the sheets of pastry. Her mother Tonina, who appears in a record of a 2023 visit, recalls that when she was a child, the family produced honey for their own use and poured it over seadas. Families also differ in whether the honey is warmed before coating the seadas or poured on as it is. Another method that has been handed down is to fry them without turning them over, spooning oil over the top to keep the cheese from oozing out of the pastry.

At the Incantos workshop in Narbolia, maker Antonio Marongiu presents an adaptation in which the pastry and filling of seadas are shaped into a form resembling culurgiones, a filled pasta. The name “colurzadas” also combines the names of the two dishes. It is an example that makes use of cheese, citrus, and honey while choosing a way of wrapping different from the round disk.

Names that vary by area, and an etymological theory linking the name to fat

Seadas (seadas) is the plural form in Sardinian; a single one is a seada (seada). The name varies even within the island: seada in Logudoro and Campidano, sebada (sebada) in Nuoro, and sabada (sabada) in Sarule.

In the theory that traces the name to seu, meaning fat, or its Nuoro form sebu, the name is explained as referring to the sheen of the fried pastry. It is a glossy surface on which frying oil and honey are layered over thin pastry with lard worked into it.

Flours and cheeses permitted under the geographical indication specification

In 2023, names formed by adding “di Sardegna” (“of Sardinia”) to six names, including “sebadas” and “seadas,” were registered as an EU geographical indication. It covers fresh filled pasta processed and packaged on the island and its associated smaller islands.

The registered specification permits not only sheep’s milk cheese but also goat’s milk and cow’s milk cheeses, as well as cow’s milk curd. For the pastry, soft wheat flour may be used as well as durum wheat flours. Oval shapes are permitted as well as round ones, and lard may range from 0 to 20% of the weight of the pastry. The specification makes broad use of the island’s dairy products and flours. Aroma is added with lemon or orange zest.

For seadas made by melting the cheese filling in advance, there is also an optional label indicating this older method. The labor-intensive method of shaping the cheese into disks is also carried on under the protected name.

Glossary