Fregola is semolina rolled into little beads and toasted, so it tastes nutty before it tastes of anything else. In Bosa they cook it with clams and the water the clams came out of, and a little tomato, and that's it, and it's the best thing I ate in nine days on an island that eats well.
Day one I ordered it because the woman at the next table had it and looked like she knew. Day two I went back and the owner said 'fregola?' before I sat down. Day three he didn't say anything, he just brought it, and a glass of Vermentino I hadn't asked for either.
I've made it four times since. Mine is fine. It's missing the thing that all my attempts at other people's food are missing, which is the other people. The Panda parked badly outside, the river the colour of a wine bottle, the man who'd stopped asking.
I'm putting it on the specials board anyway, in October, when the clams are right. I'll call it what it is: Bosa, badly remembered, with love.