The kitchen is tradition and, as
such, culture. A lot of recipes of the local kitchens are impregnated with
history and they have been being handed down for centuries for generation in
generation. Some typical products, in many cases, also become symbol and media protagonists
of a territory for their rituality, their content artistic-manual and the
aesthetics that express them.
In Sicily the whole food is symbol
and the island traditional kitchen shows all the characters of its people: from
that more "aristocrat", of the baroques and opulent dishes left each
other by the Monsùs; to the more "plebeian", that it finds again in
the dishes of the agricultural and seafearing custom.
Today, luckily, in the society don't
exist anymore social barriers due to titles and to honors and the same revolution
has been transferring in the vision of the gastronomy. So many gods, considered
in the past a dime a dozen, have been rehabilitated by the dietary and
nutritional point of view and recognized as of the delicacies, thanks also to
their territorial exclusiveness.
Among these we find all the
"blue fish": mackerel, needle-fishes, longfin tuna, sardines, alaccie[1],
anchovies. This type of fish has been being for centuries the fruit of the island
fishing and we have many recipes in which it is protagonist: fried, roasted, all’acqua pazza[2],
in bittersweet, marinated, with the onion, with the tomato sauce.
Mine prefer are the anchovies, then if
they are marinated I find them irresistible. Greek and Romans were teachers in
the maintenance of the fish and, possibly, the recipe of the "marinated
Anchovies" comes us from them. Here I propose you that of my family.
Ingredients: 500 gr. of anchovies; 3-4 cloves
of garlic; salt; red hot chilli pepper or black pepper (according your taste);
white vinegar; juice of 1 lemon; extravirgin oil of olive; oregano.
Procedure: Wash quickly the fish under the
fresh water. Scale, if necessary, the anchovies, eliminate the head, bone
opening them "to book[3]"
and set as soon as in a bowl with plentiful white vinegar.
Marinate about an half of hour or
until the meat of fish will not be white. Then, rinse out them and dry well with
rolling paper.
Put them in a pan making many beds, seasoning
every bed with salt, red hot chilli pepper or blackpepper, slices of garlic,
oregano, vinegar and juice of lemon, oil of olive.
Make to rest in the refrigerator at
least for two hours before to eat them.
Suggestion: Serve them as inviting appetizer,
sprinkled of minced fresh parsley, of the thin slices of fresh lemon and with
some warm croutons of bread. If then you accompany all this with a fresh wine
glass of Sicilian white wine as the White Etna, your senses will thank you.
Precaution: for the marinading you not used
copper or aluminum containers because the acids of the marinading make to
release poisonous substances.
[1] Alaccia, Sardinella aurita, is of the
same family of the sardines but it meat it is less appreciated because is reach
of fat.
[2] Fish “all'acqua pazza” is
simmered in water flavoured with much garlic, olive oil, parsley and tomato. In
the past, when the sea water was clean, the fishermen used it to cook their
catch while still at sea.
[3] I think that in English the correct
term for this kind of procedure is “butterfly”.
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