Best Pasta in Olbia: The Sardinian Shapes to Order

Which pasta dishes in Olbia are worth ordering

Order the shapes you will not find done properly at home: maccarones de busa, malloreddus, and the local pastas that turn up as a mixed starter at Ristorante Barbagia. Sardinian pasta is often about the sauce as much as the shape, built on wild boar, sausage, tomato and saffron rather than basil and olive oil.

Start with the cured meats and pecorino, then move on to a plate of local pastas as a first course. That is the order Barbagia's menu suggests, and it keeps the heavier wild boar and sausage sauces for the main event.

Maccarones de busa with wild boar sauce: what it is and where to order it

Maccarones de busa are long, hollow pasta strands, and the version to order comes with a slow-cooked wild boar ragù — the meaty sauce of the Sardinian interior. The sauce is the point, so pair it with a red rather than a white, or with water if you are pacing yourself.

At Ristorante Barbagia on Via Galvani, the maccarones de busa come with cinghiale, the Italian word for wild boar. Wild boar is leaner and stronger in flavour than pork, and long cooking turns it into a sauce that clings to the pasta.

Malloreddus alla campidanese: the small ridged pasta with tomato, sausage and saffron

Malloreddus are small, ridged, gnocchi-like pasta shapes, sometimes called Sardinian gnocchi, and alla campidanese means the way of Campidano, the plain of southern Sardinia. The sauce is tomato with crumbled sausage and saffron, which gives it a warm golden colour and a savoury, faintly floral edge. It is a gentler dish than the wild boar maccarones, so it suits a first pasta course or an evening when you want something less heavy.

Order it to see how saffron is used in Sardinian cooking, where it gives the tomato and sausage sauce a warm golden colour and a savoury, faintly floral edge. The portion makes it a sensible shared plate before a main of roast meat.

Where to eat pasta in Olbia: Ristorante Barbagia on Via Galvani

For a wider shortlist across the city, work through our guide to the Best Restaurants in Olbia and compare it against Barbagia's inland focus. The city splits roughly between harbour-front kitchens with a view and neighbourhood trattorias where the cooking is the draw, and Barbagia sits firmly in the second camp.

Via Galvani, 94, is Barbagia's address, so note it before you set out for dinner. Ask what the kitchen is serving that day and let the menus do the talking.

Filling out the meal: prosciutto di Barbagia, pecorino sardo and the pork or wild boar starters

Start with the cured meats. Prosciutto di Barbagia is a thinly sliced ham from the mountainous Barbagia region inland, and paired with pecorino sardo, the firm sheep's cheese of the island, it is the classic opener before a pasta course. The prosciutto is delicate and salty; the pecorino is nutty and sharp. Together they set up the wild boar and sausage that follow.

For a lighter starter, look for tamata chi sa frughe, a Sardinian cheese and tomato dish, which sits well before the heavier sauces. Sausage comes in two versions, salciccia di maiale with pork and salciccia di cinghiale with wild boar, and either makes a good introduction to the inland style of cooking.

For the main event, roast piglet cooked on a spit is the traditional centrepiece of the Sardinian table when it is available, and it is worth ordering if the kitchen has it. The meat is the point of the meal, so consider splitting a pasta starter and a main between two rather than ordering a full plate of each.

Is Olbia known for pasta or for the food of the Sardinian interior?

The cooking worth seeking out in Olbia is the food of the interior rather than a pasta style of its own. The inland repertoire travels down to the coast here: cured meats, pecorino, game sauces and roast meat. That is why the pasta dishes worth ordering are the mountain ones.

If you are in the mood for something different on another evening, our pick of the Best Pizza in Olbia covers the city's other great everyday order.

Coperto and booking in Olbia

A coperto, a small cover charge per person, is common in sit-down restaurants, so expect it on the bill alongside your meal. Ask for the bill rather than assuming service is included.

If a particular dinner matters, ring ahead during the day to reserve a table and confirm the restaurant is open that evening, especially in high summer when Olbia fills with coastal visitors. Note the address before you go: Via Galvani, 94.

Which pasta should you order first?

Start with maccarones de busa and the wild boar ragù, then come back for malloreddus alla campidanese on a second visit. Together they cover the two poles of Sardinian pasta, the gamey and the saffron-scented, and either will tell you more about the island's cooking than a plate of seafood linguine ever will.

If you only have one evening in Olbia, head to Via Galvani and build the meal around a pasta starter, a shared pork or wild boar main, and a glass of red. Keep the coastal restaurants for lunch and give the inland kitchen your dinner.