The Nuorese and Barbagia regions are considered to preserve the most authentic and purest Sardinian cuisine, just like the people that live here.  Due to its  essentially mountainous geographic position, this area has undergone very few substantial external influences and for this reason eating in the province of Nuoro is like travelling back in time. 
The cuisine in this part of Sardinia is based on the agricultural-shepherding traditions and on meat dishes such as skewered “porchetto" (pork), still prepared using traditional methods; it's cooked in a hole covered by a layer of earth on which a fire is lit using aromatic wood.  The same aromatic bushes are also used to smoke exquisite hams and sausages.  Alternatively you can try sheep “a cappottu" (boiled) and seasoned with potatoes, carrots and onions. 
Among the first courses “culurzones" (small pasta sacks) filled with ricotta cheese and potatoes or soups with “filindeu" (pasta), fresh acidulous cheese and local crispy bread.  As for the choice of cheeses, a numerous variety of sheep cheese enriches this menu. 
Not to be forgotten are the coastal areas including Bosa, with its excellent fish dishes, also part of this region. Here you will find “s'azada" (dogfish) and lobster. 
Its desserts are uniquely and finely decorated and include “tiliccas de saba e meli", pastry twists filled with Marsala and honey or “caschettas", twists of fine, delicate pastry filled with hazelnut paste made from nuts grown the Barbaricine mountains.  A unique tasting rarity is “sa pompia", an orange-grapefruit hybrid that only grows in the eastern coastal region of the Nuorese, boiled and caramelised with strawberry tree honey. 
An ideal accompaniment to the traditional Nuorese/Barbaricino menu is a bottle of Cannonau; or on the other hand, try Passito or Vernaccia with dessert.