Seadas Sarde con Miele Amaro di Corbezzolo

Sardinia

Sardinia's most iconic dolce — large fried pastry rounds filled with fresh sheep's cheese (pecorino fresco or formaggio de fitta) and lemon zest, fried in lard until golden and puffed, then drizzled with bitter honey from the corbezzolo (strawberry tree) or acacia honey. The cheese inside melts during frying and becomes creamy and slightly acid — the combination of the fried pastry, melted cheese and bitter honey is one of the great flavour combinations in Italian cooking.

• Fried pastry with cheese filling — the small, individual Greek fried cheese pastry version; sweet-bitter finish is absent → Tiropita fried (small) Greek
• Fried pastry with melted cheese drizzled with honey — same sweet-savoury cheese-in-fried-pastry-with-honey logic → Kadayıf (fried cheese pastry) Turkish
• Baked (not fried) cheese tart with honey drizzle — the Balearic cousin of the Sardinian cheese-pastry-honey tradition → Flaons de formatge (Menorcan) Spanish

Crisp, buttery pastry giving way to hot, creamy, acidic sheep's cheese; bitter honey drizzled over adds complexity that sweet honey cannot — one of Italy's most distinctive sweet preparations