One of the most striking data on the domestic production of bread for daily consumption is the great variability of the types both on a regional scale and at the local level, and not only in relation to the forms. The multiplicity of types is also linked to the use first of wheat flours, secondarily of barley flour, and finally of ground cereals and also of acorns.
All types of milled meat could be found in the same location, just as everywhere the daily breads involved the use of various flours, more or less purified and often mixed together.

The broadest classification criterion, alive in common consciousness, is based on the processing techniques that lead to distinguishing soft dough breads (soft and with porous crumbs, such as “civràxu” and “moddizzòsu”) from hard dough breads (mostly with crust and compact crumbs, such as “coconut” and “bread roll”); almost everywhere the two types of dough are present in the same location although with a predominance of one or the other depending on the area and the season.

An external classification, based on morphological characteristics, is that of large breads and thin breads: while the first category is spread uniformly throughout the island (but divided into numerous varieties and constituting only in some areas the fundamental type of daily bread), the second category is peculiar to some regions and has two very distinct types. Almost the entire northern area, corresponding to most of the province of Sassari, is characterized by the use of circular and flat bread, with an average diameter of 30-40 cm and about 0.50 cm thick, soft, without crumbs, easily divided into two sheets; known in regional Italian as esplanata or bread d'Ozieri, it has different local names that sometimes refer to its appearance (fine bread), sometimes to used flour (bread 'e pòddine).

The very thin type (a few millimeters thick), crunchy and without crumbs, now commonly known - due to an improper extension of the name - as “carasàu bread” or with the Italian name of musical paper, is exclusive to the central area and in particular to the Nuoro area and Barbagia. In these areas it has the typical circular or oval shape, while slightly thicker and rectangular variants are found in Ogliastra (pistòccu). In all cases, this is leavened bread which, after first cooking, is divided into two sheets and baked a second time. Long-lasting bread, in the semolina and fior di farina variant, was the bread of wealthy families used at home, while in the variants of cruschello (chivàrzu) and in that of barley flour, it was rather the bread of the less well-off, of the servants, of the shepherds during their stay in the fold or during transhumance.
Crunchy, biscuits, but not very thin, are found in various other areas but for alternative and seasonal use; flat and hard but quite often it is the “galletta” type, exclusive to fishermen who kept it in the boat for supplies and softened it in seawater or fish broth.

Other soft and flat shapes, but not comparable to the esplanade due to their thickness, are also present in many areas, including those typical of 'fine bread' and 'carasàu bread'.
Coarse-grained breads, even at the level of usual and non-festive production, offer great differences in shapes, decorations, processing techniques, denominations. Some types have almost regional distribution, while others have a more limited extension and, in any case, all the localities have developed specific characters in such a way that each country or each subregion could be recognized by its ways of making bread as by its ways of dressing.

Not all types of bread were produced with every batch and by every family group; the composition of the family, the presence of children, the sick, the old people, dogs, the economic conditions, the type of work, the relationships of sharecropping or servitude were just as many differentiating elements of the breads. Even the wet and dry seasons (which involved different times for leavening) and the availability at certain times of certain foods (cracklings, olives, tomatoes, ricotta, potatoes, onions, etc.) affected the bread cycle.

Seasoned breads, that is, with a dough reinforced by the ingredients mentioned above, being linked to specific moments in the production cycle, were exceptional in character and, although they were almost never precisely ritualized, constituted an intermediate sector between daily and ceremonial breads. After all, in precarious conditions, a varied diet richer in fat than the ordinary one was a sign of celebration. Present all year round and happy and sad on every occasion, bread was never wasted; like any popular cuisine, even the Sardinian one had its own soup recipes with which leftover bread was recycled. In all cases, bread had its sacredness, which was also manifested in the act of preparation through prayers, recited formulas, magical acts.

(from E. Delitala, “Wheat and Bread in Daily Life”, in In the Name of Bread. Forms, techniques, occasions of traditional baking in Sardinia, Sassari, ISRE, 1991).