Seadas Sarde

Ingredients

• 300g fine semolina flour, plus more for dusting
• 45g lard, at room temperature
• 150ml warm water
• 5g fine salt
• 400g young fresh pecorino sardo, no more than a few days old
• Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
• 1 litre sunflower or mild olive oil, for frying
• 200g runny honey, ideally corbezzolo or chestnut

Before you cook

• Coarsely grate the fresh pecorino.
• Line a tray with baking paper.
• Grate the lemon zest into a small bowl.

Steps

1. Rub the lard into the semolina flour and salt with your fingertips until evenly combined.
2. Add the warm water a little at a time and bring the dough together.
3. Knead firmly for ten minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic and quite firm.
4. Wrap the dough and rest it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
5. Put the grated pecorino in a small heavy pan with a tablespoon of water over the lowest possible heat.
6. Stir constantly for about five minutes, until the cheese melts into a single stretchy mass that pulls into threads.
7. Take the pan off the heat and beat in the lemon zest.
8. Tip the molten cheese onto the lined tray and spread it out to a slab about 5mm thick.
9. Leave the cheese to cool and set firm, which takes around 40 minutes.
10. Cut the set cheese into 12 discs with a 6cm cutter.
11. Roll the rested dough out on a floured surface until it is 2mm thick and almost translucent.
12. Cut out 24 discs with an 8cm cutter.
13. Set a cheese disc in the centre of a pastry disc and brush the exposed pastry border with water.
14. Lay a second pastry disc on top and press the edges together, pushing out all the air.
15. Trim and crimp the sealed edge with a fluted cutter or the tines of a fork.
16. Assemble the remaining seadas the same way.
17. Heat the frying oil in a wide pan to 175 degrees Celsius.
18. Fry two seadas at a time for about 90 seconds a side, spooning oil over the tops, until blistered and golden.
19. Drain them briefly on kitchen paper.
20. Warm the honey in a small pan until it is pourable.
21. Set the seadas on plates, pour the warm honey over them, and eat them immediately while the cheese still pulls.