Tag Archives: fish

spaghetti con mosciame – spaghetti with dry-cured tuna

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No, before you ask, I am not a paid-up employee of the Tuna Marketing Board. Yes, I know, I posted a tuna recipe only last week, but that’s just a coincidence. Admittedly, with my love for tuna, let’s just say it was a coincidence waiting to happen. However, fishy coincidences aside, I’m sure you’re all wondering just what mosciame is. Quite a few Sicilians from this side of the island don’t know either, so you’re Continue Reading →

i ruggeri, messina

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As I mentioned the other day, we were having bad weather, at least officially. So even though it was a Friday evening, the bars and restaurants were pretty empty. Our chosen dinner venue, I Ruggeri, was no exception, despite being top of tripadvisor’s list of the city’s 414 restaurants. Of course, I feel I should mention that at least in Italy, tripadvisor’s definition of “restaurant” is pretty flexible. “Restaurant” no. 2, for example, is actually Continue Reading →

fresh tuna salad – insalata di tonno fresco

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What I really needed yesterday evening was a steaming, hot beef stew. But of course, that would have meant, amongst other things, planning slightly ahead, at least slightly enough ahead to slip to the butcher’s in the morning and stock up on stewing steak. Before you ask why, having missed my morning window of opportunity, I didn’t just buy some meat in the afternoon, I should tell you that butchers here only open in the Continue Reading →

spaghetti alle vongole – spaghetti with clams

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This is not specifically a Sicilian dish, and other regions of Italy have their own versions (although variation is minimal). Anyway, it’s served in most seafood restaurants here, and is a favourite in my house, and that’s good enough for me. This is one of those dishes that I always feel has something of a restaurant aura about it, but I suspect this is simply a hangover from my English upbringing. Anything served in its Continue Reading →

spigola con salmoriglio – sea bass with Sicilian vinaigrette

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This is so easy to make that it’s hardly a recipe at all, but then again it’s such a crucial part of Sicilian seafood cookery that I could hardly leave it out. Salmoriglio is the fundamental condiment for grilled fish here, be it swordfish, tuna, sea bass, gilt-head bream … With something so simple, the quality of your raw materials is what makes all the difference. Now, I’m obviously spoilt here, as you would expect. Continue Reading →

pasta al sugo di capone – pasta with dolphinfish

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Not for the first time, and not for the last either, I’ll warrant, we come up against the problem of names. This time in both English and Italian, just to make things fair. In English, these creatures that look like they’ve swum into a wall nose-first are called dolphinfish or mahi-mahi (which of course is not English, but Hawaiian, for the record). I don’t know why, and as you can see, they’re not likely to Continue Reading →

occhiverdi fritti – fried greeneyes

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Green eyes, baby’s got green eyes… No, then again, maybe not. It would be difficult to get romantic about these little fish. And even the name of this recipe is disturbing, I know. Don’t think it hasn’t struck me just how Hannibal Lecter it sounds. And you won’t feel any better once you’ve had a look at them. Pretty convincing proof of the exstence of aliens, if you ask me. This is the chlorophthalmus agassizi, Continue Reading →