Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (60 page)

It is absolutely necessary that the wine you use be dry; otherwise, the dish will taste too sweet. A sole of ordinary size serves one person.

Take a couple of medium-sized sole or even just one. Remove the skin and bones to obtain four fillets which you will then cut crosswise into tiny strips the size of matches. If you cut them at a slant, they will turn out a little longer, which is better. Place the strips of sole in a bowl with the juice of one lemon, or more if necessary, and let them marinate for two or three hours. This will make them stiffen, otherwise they would be too soft. Shortly before you intend to serve them, dry them with a cloth, dip in milk, dredge in flour, trying not to let them curl up, and fry in oil; then salt lightly.

The saying “mute as a fish” is not always true, because red mullet, umber, and some other fish emit odd sounds caused by the vibration of special muscles; these vibrations are increased by the movement of the air in their swimming bladder.

The largest, most flavorful red mullet are rock mullet or striped surf mullet. However, this recipe can also be used for cooking medium-sized red mullet, which are called “rossioli” or “barboni” in the regions bordering the Adriatic. After gutting and rinsing the fish, dry them well with a kitchen towel, and then place them in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, oil, and lemon juice. Leave them like this for several hours, and when you are about to cook them, cut thin slices of untrimmed prosciutto. The slices should be as wide
as and equal in number to the pieces offish. Take a metal dish or pan and scatter a few whole sage leaves on the bottom. Coat the fish well in bread crumbs, and arrange them upright side by side with the slices of prosciutto between them, scattering more sage leaves on top.

Finally, pour the remaining liquid over the fish and bake with fire above and below. If you want this dish to turn out more refined, remove the spine from the raw mullet by cutting open the belly side, and then close the fish.

After removing the intestines with the tip of a knife passing through the gills, rinse and dry the fish, and place a little piece of garlic where the intestines used to be. Season with salt, pepper, olive oil, and sprigs of rosemary; set aside. When you are ready to cook them, dredge the fish in bread crumbs and then pour the seasonings over them when they are on the fire. Or, after cleaning, rinsing, and drying them, simply season with a little salt and pepper and cook over a high flame. Once done, arrange them on a platter, and only then season them with olive oil and a little more salt and pepper.

Serve with lemon wedges.

This beautiful, bright red, excellent-tasting fish, which reaches a weight of 500 to 600 grams (between about 1 and 1-1/3 pounds), is usually grilled in the following way.

Season with oil, salt, and pepper, grill over a high flame, and when you remove the fish, dab it while it is still very hot with a mixture of butter, chopped parsley, and lemon juice that you have prepared in advance. This method can also be used for other large fish cooked on the grill.

The ancient Romans prized fish with the most delicious flesh; the kinds they favored were sturgeon, weever, lamprey, rock mullet, and hake
caught in the sea of Syria, not to mention moray eels, which they raised in the most lavish fashion in special ponds, even feeding them with the flesh of their slaves.

Publius Vedius Pollio is famous in history for his wealth and his cruelty. Once when he was dining with Augustus, he commanded that a servant who had carelessly broken a crystal goblet be thrown to the morays. Augustus, at whose feet the slave fell, invoking his intercession, barely managed to save his life with an ingenious stratagem.
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Large striped mullet, which reach a weight of not merely of 500 to 600 grams (about 1 to 1-1/3 pounds), as I said above, but even 4 to 6 pounds, were highly prized and bought at fabulously high prices. The Romans, whose sense of taste had been refined by a life of luxury and gluttony, tried to satisfy their appetite with the most delicate foods; so they invented a sauce called
garum
⁷⁹
made with the minced and cured innards of this large fish, into which they would dip the flesh of the fish.

Mince a little garlic, parsley, and a piece of celery; place on the fire with a generous amount of olive oil, and when the garlic has browned add chopped fresh tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes cook well, stirring frequently, and then strain. Cook the mullet in the strained sauce. If small, they need not be turned, and if the pan in which they have been poached is not presentable enough, remove them one by one so as not to break them, and place on a platter.

Just before removing them from the fire, sprinkle lightly with chopped parsley.

It is easier and more productive to fish for red mullet during the day than at night, and the season for it, as I already mentioned, is September and October.

If you have about 1/2 a kilogram (about 1 pound) of red mullet, take two cloves of garlic and a nice handful of parsley and chop them very finely. Place on the fire with a generous amount of oil in a skillet or baking dish in which the mullet can lie flat; when the garlic has browned, add plain tomato sauce (recipe 6). Let the sauce boil a while, and then add the mullet one at a time, turning them so that they become coated with sauce. Cover and boil slowly, and when the fish have absorbed a good part of the liquid, pour in a finger of red wine diluted in two fingers of water.

Boil a little longer and serve.

Tuna, a fish from the mackerel family, is native to the Mediterranean basin. During certain seasons, it lives in the deepest parts of the sea, while at other times of the year it moves near the shore, where it is caught in great numbers. On account of its oiliness, its flesh is reminiscent of pork, and therefore is not easy to digest. They say that tuna are found weighing as much as 500 kilograms (about 1100 pounds). The tenderest, most delicate part of this fish is the belly, which in Tuscany is called “sorra.”

Cut the tuna into half a finger thick slices. Place on the fire a generous soffritto of garlic, parsley, and oil and, when the garlic starts to brown, put in the fish. Season with salt and pepper, turn the slices on both sides, and when half cooked, add tomato sauce (recipe 6) or diluted tomato paste. When it is cooked through, remove the tuna and cook some peas in the sauce; then put the tuna back on top of the peas to warm it up, and send it to the table with this accompaniment.

Slice as in the preceding recipe, but try to cut slices mostly from the belly. Season with oil, salt, and pepper, coat with bread crumbs, and grill. Serve with lemon wedges.

Take a whole piece of tuna preserved in oil weighing 150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces), place on the fire in boiling water, and boil slowly for half an hour, adding water every ten minutes (that is, three times). In the meantime, finely chop half a small onion as in recipe 409, with a clove of garlic, two ribs of white celery as long as the palm of your hand, a nice piece of carrot, and a generous handful of parsley. Put this mixture on the fire with three tablespoons of oil and 15 grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of butter, and when it is browned add two fingers of water and let boil a little while. Cut the tuna, which you have let cool, into the thinnest slices possible and layer the slices flat in a pan, alternating with the sauce and 15 more grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of butter, scattered in small pieces over the fish. Raise the heat so as to melt the butter, squeeze half a lemon over the tuna, and serve hot. This recipe serves four people as the first course in a meatless lunch, or it can be served as an
entremets
at a family dinner. It is not a dish to be scoffed at, because it does not lie heavy on the stomach.

This type of lobster, one of the finest, most delicate crustaceans, is common on the coasts of the Mediterranean. The weight of rock lobsters, true lobster, and crustaceans in general in proportion to their size is an indication of their freshness and good quality; but it is always preferable that they still be alive, or at least that they give some sign of life, in which case one usually folds the lobster’s tail under the lower portion of the body and ties it before tossing it in boiling water.

Depending on the size of the lobster, boil it for thirty to forty minutes; but first season the water in which it is to boil with a
bouquet garni
consisting of onion, carrot, parsley, and two bay leaves, adding two tablespoons of vinegar and a pinch of salt. Let the lobster cool in its broth, and when you remove it, shake the water off, holding it by the tail. After drying it, rub with a few drops of oil to make it shiny.

Send it to the table with a cut from the head to the tail so that the meat can be easily removed, and accompany it with mayonnaise or some other tasty sauce, if you do not want to eat it simply with oil and lemon juice. But you can also serve it with a lobster sauce made in the following way.

Remove the meat from the head of a lobster and chop finely with a hard-boiled egg yolk and a few parsley leaves. Place this mixture in a gravy dish, seasoning it with pepper and a little or no salt, and thinning it with fine olive oil and the juice of half a lemon, or vinegar.

Take a lobster weighing about 650 grams (about 1-1/2 pounds), boil as in the preceding recipe, then remove all the meat from the shell and chop coarsely with a mezzaluna. Make a bechamel sauce, using the amounts described in recipe 220, and when you remove it from the fire toss the chopped lobster into it, add salt, and, after mixing well, pour onto a plate where you will leave it to cool for several hours.

When you are ready to make the patties, divide the mixture into ten equal parts, roll each of them in bread crumbs, and mold with the palms of your hands into patties a little more than half a finger thick. Dip the patties in beaten egg, roll again in bread crumbs, and fry in oil. Break the long antennae of the lobster into ten pieces, and insert them into the patties just before serving to indicate the noble material of which they are made. This recipe serves five people and is a very delicate dish.

This is a delicate seafood dish that can be served as the first course of a luncheon.

The scallop shells used for this recipe should each be as wide in their concave part as the palm of your hand, so that the contents of each one will be enough for one person. Scallops belong to the genus
Pecten lacobaeus;
colloquially they are called “cappa santa” (holy cowl) because scallop shells used to be worn by pilgrims.
⁸¹
The edible flesh of this shellfish is highly prized for its delicate flavor.

In some aristocratic homes they use silver scallop shells, which can also be used to serve ice cream. But in this case, since we are dealing with seafood, natural scallop shells seem more appropriate to me.

Take the flesh of a high-quality poached fish—though you can also use hake, mullet or dogfish—and make the mixture with the following amounts, which are enough to fill six scallop shells:

130 grams (about 4-1/2 ounces) of poached fish

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of grated Parmesan cheese

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of flour

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of butter

2 egg yolks

2-1/2 deciliters (about 1 cup) of milk