The Old-School Stuffed Italian Pasta You've Probably Never Heard Of

Whether the exterior is thick and crusty, as with Cornish pasties or Mexican empanadas, or thin and delicate, like Japanese gyoza or potstickers from China, nearly every culture has a hand pie, dumpling, filled bun, or stuffed pasta. Heck, some countries even have multiple varieties. You may have heard of Italian ravioli, gnocchi, and gnudi, for instance, but have you ever had culurgiones? It's a stuffed pasta dish from the island of Sardinia, distinguished by its filling and unique shape.

The main ingredient for the filling is potato, which isn't too unusual — you can find ravioli and tortelli filled with potatoes in several parts of Italy, to say nothing of similar dishes from other countries, like Polish pierogi. But they're also often filled with Pecorino cheese and some fresh mint to cut through the creamy richness of the potato, and they're usually served with tomato sauce. As for the shape of culurgiones, that comes from a distinct crimping closing process that makes it resemble the spike at the top of a blade of wheat. That makes culurgiones a little more fussy than their Italian dumpling cousins but doubtlessly rewarding in their own right.

The traditional version of culurgiones we just described comes from the Sardinian province of Ogliastra, and there are several variations within the area, ranging from a potato and onion filling favored in the town of Tortoli to a smaller, cheese-dominant dumpling in the town of Arzana. They're often made to celebrate All Souls' Day in the beginning of November, as well as the end of the yearly wheat harvest.

So why don't we see culurgiones served at our local Italian restaurants next to the capellini and tagliatelle? Well, Italian foods are very regional, and most of the Italians who emigrated and spread their cuisine were from other parts of the country, such as Rome or Sicily — not the remote island of Sardinia. So while you'll find Roman carbonara and amatriciana pastas around the world, you won't find as many restaurants that serve Sardinian specialties like fregola, malloreddus, or, indeed, culurgiones. But that's an even better reason why you should try some when you get the chance, isn't it?