Spigola al Sale

If you happen to attend a Sicilian Wedding or a special celebration here in Sicily, you might have the opportunity to try a fish baked in salt. I mention the special celebrations, because on two occasions, we were dinning at a family members wedding, and when it was time for the second course, a tray covered in a mountain of white topped with sparkling fireworks, was presented to the bride and groom.

The fish is something special! The salt creates a hard shell around the fish, making it so it cooks in all its own juices, resulting in a very soft, moist, flavored fish.




2 kilos of fine salt
4 egg yolks
2 kilo of seabass

Beat the egg yolks till tall peaks are formed and add the salt. (We have used the large grain salt also, but this recipe is much easier to work with.)
Cover the fish with a thick layer of the salt mixture and place in the oven for 60 minutes. Rule of thumb, 20 minutes for every 600 grams.

Once cooked, crack open the salt shield and taste the difference.

Insalata di stocco

There are so many ways to prepare stocco, but for a fresh, light meal this Insalata di stocco is a great idea. Summer is on it's way! Read about stocco and where it's from here...

2 people
400 g stocco (Dried Cod Fish)
two boiled potatoes
parsley
salt
EVOlive Oil

Boil the stocco in water will cooked. Clean the fish of bones and skin and place in a bowl. Add sliced potatoes, parsley, oil, and salt to taste.

Buon Compleanno Antonello

Yesterday was Antonello's Birthday! We invited friends over to share a dinner together and on the menu we served carciofi e ricotta tortellini, and for the second dentice in crosta di sale. (Artichoke and ricotta tortellini, and local Snapper cooked in a salt crust)

Carciofi e Ricotta Tortellini

Clean all the exterior leaves off.

Trim off the top, cut into quarters, and drop into a pot of water with lemon.

At this point, boil the artichokes in lightly salted water till they are tender.

Using an immersion blender, blend the artichokes till a creamy consistency. We then added ricotta at this point to fill our tortellini.

This time, when making the pasta, we used our pasta machine. We were able to make a large assembly line to fill and form our tortellini.

We served the tortellini with a sage butter sauce. A light taste, so not to cover the delicate artichokes.


With a hammering technique, Antonello cracked open the salt shield. Inside, we were treated with a delicacy...

Auguri Amore Mio!

Luca and Maria

dentice crosta di sale1 dentice around 1,5 Kg
2 Kg of large grain salt

Once the fish has been cleaned, place a few sprigs of parsley inside the fish. Line a baking tray with paper and cover with a layer of salt. Place the fish on top of the salt and carefully cover the fish with the remaining salt. Water and the use of egg whites can help with the salt application. Place it in the oven for about an hour and 15 min at 180 ° (250°). When the fish is cooked, break open the shell and serve with an extra virgin olive oil mixture. Olive oil, lemon, parsley, garlic, and salt.

pasta con calamari e mascolini beccafico

Justina and I had plans to head over to the Linguaglossa street market this morning, and there we ran into Bastiano and Irene. Thanks for the picture!
I bought artichokes, flowers, and my favorite toasted almonds... On our way home, we stopped in Linguaglossa's fish market, and it was a treat. I decided on calamari and mascolini for lunch. It is, after all, Friday... (Mascolini in Sicilian, Anchovies in English, and Alici or Acciughe in Italian.)

The man at the fish market insisted on cleaning the calamari for me, so I don't have a before picture. He cleaned out the inside, scraped off the thin outer skin, and cut into pieces.

Here, I sauteed the calamari in olive oil, garlic, and red pepper. Parsley and cherry tomatoes were then added to the pan. White wine would also be a nice addition, but I didn't have any today.

Then, the not quite al dente pasta was added to the pans liquid, where it would finish cooking.

A little sweet a little spicy... Yum.

With the mascolini I thought about making a "type" of beccafico. A very simple combination of bread crumbs, Parmigiano Reggiano, and parsley. After removing the spine, I layered the fish with the breading, and cooked on low heat. You can see other ideas with mascolini here.

Cucuzza Mieli con Riso e Mascolini

Let's hope the rain is over! This winter we were saturated with rain. Almost every day there were clouds, something very unusual for this place. We have been fortunate to have some beautiful days this past week. I say that, however, today it happens to be a bit of a dreary day. In any case, I took a picture to remember the sunshine shinning through my kitchen window when I was cooking.

Cucuzza Mieli con Riso (Pumpkin risotto) was on the menu for this day. My mother in law gave us half of a very large sweet pumpkin, from our garden. Nothing is better than the vegetables grown in the rich Sicilian soil.


For second, I bought Mascolini at the fish market. They are very inexpensive and they are not cultivated! Therefore, when they are available, I buy them. These little fishes are rich in omega 3, excellent blue fish, and oh so good.

Stocco

Today we purchased stucco for lunch, dried cod fish, that had been soaking for days and ready to cook.
First cut the fish into pieces and rinse under water.
In a pan, cook an onion in a small amount of water.
Once the onion is cooked, add the fish, a potato and two tomatoes.
Have the heat on high, and once you see vapours coming out of the pan, turn the heat down to slowly cook the fish.
At the last moment add a few black olives for an extra flavour.
We serve the fish with it’s broth and cut up small pieces of hard bread. It’s delicious!


The terms "dried cod" and "stockfish" express two different ways to treat the same fish, the codfish. The sea waters off Norway, Iceland, the Baltic Sea and Newfoundland are extremely rich of this fish, because the sea waters in these lands are very cold and limpid. During the cold northern winters the fish is dumped on the shore and brought to drain for months on wooden hurdles at a temperature near to 0°C. The fish is then exposed to the cold atmosphere and the feeble sunrays of the Northern skies. As a result you get the "stockfish", whose name derives from the german word "stock", meaning a staff (or cane) which shape and hardness it resembles. In the summer, when the temperature is raised, this method, for obvious reasons due to the deterioration of the codfish flesh, cannot be practiced and the solution is in the salt + barrels method. Once the codfish has been caught, and got rid of its head, fins, tail and interiors already on the fishing boat, it is immediately put into barrels, and generously covered with salt, that guarantees its draining and a long preservation. This is the "dried cod"..

Mascolini

I have to admit, I was a little grossed out with this one. But, after I regained my courage I was fine. To begin, you need to clean the little fish, which consists of removing the head and spine. Honestly, easier said than done!

Once clean, layer the fish in a pan.
Add parsley and parmesan cheese. I know what you thinking, “cheese with fish”? But, with this recipe, it’s ok.
Make another layer of fish and add a small amount of EVOOil.
Cook on the stove until the fish is white and tender. This doesn’t take long.

Mascolini Piccolini & Orate Baked

In a pan heat garlic, parsley, and a little olive oil.
Add the fish and squeeze half a lemon over them.
Sprinkle a little salt and you’re done.
Heat until fish are tender.

To serve:
Place servings on a dish and drizzle extra virgin olive oil.
These are Piccolini, so you can eat the entire fish, except the little tough tail.













Orate Baked

Clean the fish under water.
Open the belly and fill with whole garlic, parsley and mint.
Wrap in tin foil and place in oven. Depending on the heat the fish usually takes 20-25 minutes.
Serve with extra virgin olive oil.
• The mint makes the fish so fresh, you won’t want to add any lemon to this dish!

Mascolini and Pesce Spada

Place in a pan:
• Mascolini and Pesce Spada
• Add garlic, parsley, salt, lemon, and little extra virgin olive oil
Put the oven and when the fish is white your are done

Fish with Tomatoes

Fish with Tomatoes (Can also replace Stucco)

In a pan add:
• Cut tomatoes, 3 small
• Garlic, broken
• Fish cut into pieces
• A few leaves of basil
• Sprinkle with salt
Cover and cook until meat is white and tender