Everyone's crazy about bottarga. The public and even the chefs, some Michelin-starred, shared how best to enjoy it. The 2025 Bottarga Festival was a huge success, a three-day event where cuisine, traditions, culture, and music showcased the identity of the Sinis region to a large and enthusiastic audience, with over 10,000 people attending over the weekend.
"A quantum leap in the economic and tourism promotion of Cabras and the Sinis," said Mayor Andrea Abis. "These three-day event demonstrated our community's ability to embrace, narrate, and enhance its heritage, intertwining culture, tradition, and innovation."
The most anticipated chefs were Davide Oldani and Max Mariola. "I'm preparing a risotto that doesn't belong to my regional tradition, that of Lazio, but that perfectly represents the soul of the Mediterranean," said Mariola. " Using Sardinian rice, San Gavino saffron, clams, and of course Cabras bottarga, I create a fusion dish that combines local ingredients and classic techniques, with an intense and authentic flavor . I have a single vision of cuisine, and it's the one I bring to every context: in restaurants, on social media, and at cooking shows. I believe it's crucial to maintain consistency: it wouldn't make sense to present one cuisine in videos and then propose another to customers or at live events. I always try to be myself, unafraid to offer simple recipes built on extraordinary products, which are what really make the difference."
"Bottarga," says two-Michelin-starred chef Davide Oldani, "doesn't need me to enhance it, because it's already an extraordinary product . I simply try to borrow its goodness and incorporate it into a dish that expresses my cuisine: a delicate, Milanese rice sheet enriched with a hint of citrus. I use it grated, not sliced, because what interests me is its sweetness, its savory flavor, and the ability to taste it in every spoonful. This combination of citrus and bottarga is, for me, the most fascinating."
The menus prepared by local restaurateurs were also highly appreciated. People lined up not only to eat but also to see the Sinis from above thanks to the Ferris wheel that animated Piazza Stagno for three days.