I was sent this book by the publisher, Allen & Unwin, at no cost. It’s out now, RRP $45.

On the one hand, this book has really excellent recipes.

On the other hand, I deeply object to the whole ‘live to 100’ vibe, given probable realities about so-called blue zones.

On the third hand, you can look past that (I do), and it’s a fine book.

As you would expect, this is a beautifully produced book (although to my sadness, there’s no ribbon bookmark; I do love a ribbon in a cookbook). The photography is great, it’s mostly about the food rather than the cook, there are some adorable handdrawn (they look like embroidery!) images scattered throughout, and the recipes themselves are laid out well. No complaints at all about the presentation.

There’s a good range of recipes – the book is structured like a traditional Sardinian meal, Mattana says: Aperitivo and Antipasti; Pane and Pasta; Primi; Secondi; Contorni and Verdure; La Dolce Vita. Within the chapters, there are harder and easier recipes. I would note that this is not a book for a beginning baker: the recipe for (the delicious) sultana and saffron bread asks you to judge ‘if the bread looks ready to bake’ with no suggestion for what that looks like, for example. And in the Culurgiones recipe there’s no indication of when the ravioli is cooked / how long to cook for.

Recipes I have made:

• Pizzette Sfoglia – puff pastry pizzas. So simple! Quite tasty, although I do think the filling (tomato passata, oregano, capers) could have been tastier.
• Su Pani Arrubiu – sultana and saffron bread. Also with orange zest. Absolutely delicious. And he recommends a long, overnight, proving, which I think was really good. Mine wasn’t as good as it could have been – I’m blaming winter – but 100% would make again.
• Tallutzas con noci e ricotta – I made this with bought orecchiette; the combination of ricotta and walnuts and nutmeg was an absolute delight.
• Culurgiones – potato stuffed ravioli. Yes, I made ravioli. Was it worth it? Look, I’m not sure. They were very tasty and I made quite a lot so a bunch went into the freezer. Are they better than very generic supermarket ravioli? Oh yes. Did they take a long time? Also yes.
• Li Puligioni – ricotta ravioli – no, I did not learn my lesson. Yes, pasta stuffed with ricotta and orange and lemon zest is very tasty.
• Spizzulus con cardoncelli e salsiccia – pasta with sausage and mushroom sauce. Had to make a sub here as my local supermarket doesn’t have dried porcini (!), so I used fresh mushrooms instead. It will have tasted a bit different, therefore, but overall this was absolutely excellent. And getting the butcher to de-case the sausage first was also brilliant.
• Panada – Sardinian pie. Further to ‘not learning my lesson,’ yes I made the shortcrust pastry for this pie. The pie has a really interesting structure: basically you’re cooking a really dry stew inside a pastry shell. You’re putting raw meat and uncooked potato inside and it comes out… perfectly cooked. Also a lot of work, but did feed two of us for three dinners.
• Bombas – meatballs. I love meatballs. These are fine but nothing out of the ordinary.
• Involtini di carne con verza. Never again will I stuff cabbage rolls. Maybe using ordinary cabbage rather than Savoy was a mistake – I don’t know, I don’t know cabbage.
• Torta di mele – apple cake. It was fine! I was lazy and didn’t do the apple slices on top, which meant it wasn’t as apple-y as it should have been, so that’s all on me.

There are more recipes I’m looking forward to making, so this one will be staying on rotation.