The other nite I was invited to a wonderful event in New York City organized by Alta Cucina Society and Regione Sardegna. The event was to present some of the specialty food of a wonderful region of Italy: Sardegna. An idyllic island in the middle of the Mediterranean where everything is just different… better: the cheeses, the olive oils, the wines, the landscape, the people.

Sadly, I was feeling a little bit under the weather, and the apocalyptic snow storm was NOT inspiring me to leave the house at all :) Luckily, I was able to send The Vito in my place and he was able to report back to me his findings! Much to my chagrin, he neglected to bring me back a morsel of food so I could also weigh in on the experience.  Seriously Vito, NOT EVEN A SOSPIRO??? Surely he could have at least smuggled me an olive, but NO! Not cool!

Apparently, the experience was also one of learning quite a few interesting facts. Of course you know that Sardegna is the home of Pecorino Sardo cheese, but  did you also know that it is the home of Pecorino Romano as well??? I didn't think so!  I bet many of us thought that the Romans made it but noooo… it is all made in Sardegna. Well now we all know!  You see, Pecorino is made from sheep’s milk of course and to make all the Pecorino that is made in Sardegna you need quite a few sheep. Check this out: Human Population of Sardegna = 1,5000,000; Sheep Population of Sardegna = 3,000,000. Holy SHEEP!  Another interesting fact: the volume of milk produced by a sheep in one year is produced by a cow in 3 days! That must explain why you would need so many more sheep to be able to produce a steady supply of sheep's milk products. 

Well, you should also know that Pecorino is very low in cholesterol and produces very few allergies. So from now on make sure you have plenty of Pecorino in your fridge!  All this has to play a role in another astonishing fact: Sardegna has the largest concentration in the WORLD of people living over 100 and they probably look wonderful for their age. I'd really like to see their statistics on Botox!  So what should we take away from all this… eat Pecorino and move to Sardegna… the center of the Mediterranean Diet! Looks like that's what I'm going to have to do if I ever want to taste the food from there. Thanks to The Vito! :)