Fish

Anna Cornino Santoro’s memorable couscous with scorpion-fish brodetto inspired me to create this version when I got home. I use grouper, a delicious fish, widely available and easy to work with (and certainly with fewer bones than scorpion fish!). Making couscous by hand, as Anna does, is not feasible for most of us, I realize. Fortunately, good-quality packaged couscous is in every supermarket these days. Almost all commercial couscous is precooked, so it takes barely 5 minutes to make a flavorful, fluffy base for the brodetto.

Of the treasures taken from the sea that surrounds Sicily, tuna is among the most prized. Sicilian cooks prepare tuna with care and respect, which usually means simply, as exemplified by these grilled tuna steaks. Aromatic wild oregano is found all over Sicily, and bouquets of the dried herb hang in almost every Sicilian home. When the tuna steaks come off the grill, they get a drizzle of virgin olive oil and a shake of the oregano bouquet—simply perfect.

In Sicily, the most popular fish to cook alla matalotta is whatever was just caught fresh! The aromatics and technique remain the same, and the outcome is always delicious. (Interestingly, it is one of the few Sicilian fish preparations that call for celery.) My top fish recommendation for this recipe is grouper; it has flesh that cooks and stays intact in the sauce. Halibut, striped bass, and black bass are other good choices. A whole black bass cooked alla matalotta is delicious—just mind the bones. Serve with grilled bread, couscous (page 304), or panelle (page 281). You can make this ahead of time and reheat to serve—just take the pot off the heat a bit before the fish and sauce are thoroughly cooked.

This is traditionally made with swordfish, but you can substitute tuna, bass, or other firm-fleshed fish in the recipe. You don’t need to buy expensive swordfish or tuna steaks—end pieces or chunks sold for skewered grilling are perfect for the sauce. Bavette is a long, flat dry pasta, like a narrow fettuccine. If you can’t find it, use good-quality dry fettuccine.

Monkfish, meaty and firm, is well suited for the fast-cooking technique of browning and braising that I use in all my seafood brodetti. This one features fresh artichokes as a foil for the sweet fish—with other bright notes from capers, wine, and a healthy dose of peperoncino. A fish dish that does not suffer from overcooking, it can be prepared even the day before. Just reheat, bringing it back to a boil. If you have any leftovers, monkfish brodetto makes a wonderful risotto the next day. Serve with some grilled country bread. I also like it with polenta.

Bagna cauda is one of Piemonte’s best-known dishes. The name means “warm bath,” and that’s what it is: a sauce of garlic, butter, oil, and anchovy heated in a deep earthenware container set on the table over a little flame, like a fondue pot. Also on the table are arrayed a great variety of cut vegetables, raw and cooked, to be dipped in the piping-hot sauce, eaten, and savored. In Piemonte, bagna cauda will always include some of the fabulous vegetables for which the region is renowned, such as cardi gobbi from Nizza Monferrato, and the gorgeous long peppers of Carmagnola. At home I serve an assortment of seasonal vegetables: You’ll find some suggestions on the next page. This is a great starter on the table or for a buffet. To make more sauce for a crowd, simply multiply the ingredient amounts given in the recipe.

Antipasti are, for me, the best part of a Piedmontese meal. At any family gathering (and in restaurants as well), the platters of different antipasti just never stop coming. And at some point in the procession, roasted peppers stuffed with tuna will arrive at the table. The combination of sweet, meaty peppers and well-seasoned oil-cured tuna is always delightful. In Piemonte, cooks are discriminating about the peppers they roast, and most sought are those from Carmagnola, a town in the countryside south of Torino. Carmagnola peppers are justly famous, for wonderful flavor as well as their vivid colors and distinctive shapes, like the corno di bue (ox horn) and trottola (spinning top). Carmagnola also is well known for il coniglio grigio di Carmagnola—the gray rabbit from Carmagnola—considered to be one of the best in Italy. Here in the States, any fresh, meaty sweet bell-type peppers are suitable—different colors make a nice presentation. And peppers are always best roasted and peeled at home, though a jar of roasted red peppers can be substituted if you are short on time. (If you have no peppers at all, this tuna filling is delicious on crostini or crackers—it makes a world-class tuna-fish sandwich too.)

I love dishes made from preserved codfish, and in the Veneto they make marvelous use of cod preserved by different methods. Baccalà is codfish that has been salted, and this is made into baccalà alla trevigiana, which I share with you here. Then there is stoccafisso, codfish that has been air-dried and that is used for baccalà manteccato, whipped with olive oil and garlic. Today salted cod—baccalà—is available in many supermarkets, and your fishmonger should carry it. It comes in boneless sides, and it is best to get center cuts, which are meatier and less salty. In any case, thorough soaking, as detailed in the recipe, is vital to the success of the dish. In Treviso, baccalà alla trevigiana is always served with Baked Polenta (page 111), and the combination of flavors and textures is so delicious I never break tradition. Do the preliminary cooking of the polenta the day before you cook the baccalà, and you can finish both in the oven at the same time.

This soup is common in all of the regions hugging the Adriatic, where fish trimmings of one sort or another are always available to cook into a light, flavorful broth. We had it often when we lived in Istria, whenever someone in the family was not feeling well, for its supposed restorative powers. And although children sometimes disdain “fishy”-tasting food, I recall vividly savoring this broth, which had the taste of the sea but was sweet and elegant too. In those days, we would take the fish heads and tails out of the soup pot and pluck the hidden morsels of whitefish meat off the bones. In the version that follows, you’ll strain the bones out of the broth and briefly cook some meaty (but boneless) trimmings just before serving the soup.

Fried fish steeped in saor, a tangy marinade of onions and vinegar, is enjoyed in all the regions around the northern Adriatic, in the Veneto, Friuli, and Istria. Many fish are suitable for this preparation, including mackerel, monkfish, young trout, even fillet of sole, but I especially love fresh sardines. When I was young and we had fried sardines for dinner, the leftover fried fish went into a crock of saor. It would keep for days and become even more delicious. With this recipe, you can assemble the dish and serve the sardines a few hours later. But if you let them marinate (in the refrigerator) for 1, 2, or even 3 days, the results will be worth the wait.

PAT Catfish is the best fish to fry. Fillets are plump, and the flesh is fatty enough to keep it moist throughout the frying. The buttermilk batter produces a flaky crust, and the pinch of cayenne pepper gives it a hint of spice: a reminder for the newlyweds-to-be of just how important it is to keep a little spice in your years of marriage.

GINA Fish tacos—you gotta love them. But of course seafood has always been my thing. The key to this dish lies in the freshness of your coleslaw. You can always use store-bought, but our recipe is so quick, and making it fresh adds a crispness that I’m not too sure store-bought can provide. Also, the jalapeño pepper in the slaw, combined with the chipotle mayo, makes our slaw smoky and spicy! I think catfish works better than other fish, because it has a good way of standing up to the heat of the frying pan . . . plus, I just love the flavor. This may be because our family had a tradition of eating catfish every Friday night for dinner. (We were probably making fish tacos before they got a fancy reputation.) And I have this thing about wraps—because you can pile everything into them and then just munch it down.

This kicky sauce is matched in flavor by its dramatic green color. Bright with parsley and with deep notes from the anchovy, salsa verde makes plain grilled fish or meat into something you want to serve to company, and it adds an herby note to rich organ meats or tongue. Try adding a spoonful to soups or tossing with plain boiled potatoes.

Mackerel is a rich fish with fabulous texture and depth of flavor. Though it’s not traditional, preserved lemon adds a piquant, salty touch to a rustic pounded sauce. To make sure the potatoes are crispy when you serve the dish, grill the fish first and fry the potatoes right before serving. Parboiling the potatoes makes it easy to get them crispy, while ensuring they’re cooked through.

At once light and intensely flavorful, poaching with aromatics is a wonderful treatment for black bass. Here, I use spring garlic and onions, but the recipe is easily adaptable to other times of the year. Make sure you use some member of the onion family for flavor; in winter, add shaved radish, fennel . . . use your imagination. This dish goes quickly if you have your fishmonger do the work for you; just ask for the trimmings to take home for making the fumet.

There’s nothing fancy about a whole, roasted fish—it’s just good. While the fish cooks, the herbs and lemon perfume the flesh, and the fish turns out moist and succulent with crisp skin. It doesn’t get much better. If you can’t find black bass, branzino, snapper, or rockfish would also work. This recipe is for one whole fish, but it’s just as easy to double the recipe if you’re having friends to dinner. Roast off a couple of fish, add a couple of other dishes, and let everyone share.

Although skate “wing” might sound exotic, skate is nothing more than a kissing cousin to sharks, as well as a delicious fish with delicately flavored, sweet white meat. It’s more prevalent on the East Coast; out West, you will probably need to ask your fishmonger to order it for you. Weighting the skate while it cooks keeps it from curling, making for even cooking and a nicer presentation. Be careful when you add the wine to the brown butter, because the mixture will bubble up and spit a little.

It’s spring in Seattle—that means fresh, tender peas, the first succulent morels, and firm, snowy halibut begging to swim around in a bowl with all that other goodness. For a little bite, I add some shaved Cincinnati radish—a long, mild radish that looks like a baby carrot. This is a lovely dish that puts me in mind of longer, warmer days.

Fluke—often called “summer flounder” on the East Coast or hirame in Japan—is an extremely light and delicate fish. Because of its mild flavor, I like to pair it with this citrus relish, complementing, but not overpowering, the fish’s characteristics. For the baby leaves, you can use arugula, Italian parsley, microgreens, or whatever you can find and like. Feel free to vary the citrus in the relish as well, experimenting with grapefruit, blood oranges, or sweet Cara Cara oranges in the winter. Because fluke cooks so quickly, have your relish ready before you begin the fish. To make sure you get a nice crispy exterior on the fillets, use two sauté pans if necessary. Crowding the pan will cause the fish to steam instead of sear.