J - 101 : Seafood in Campania

Exactly eight weeks ago, I talked about food in Campania. Time to honor my promise to come back after I run out of time and space. With approximately 500 km of Tyrrhenian Sea coast line, seafood is prominently present on Campania's menus. Since there are so many Campania dishes, am going to focus on "mare". I will cover "terra" in another blog.

Fishermen sell their Catch of the Day every morning on the Piers - we will be happy Buyers!

People in Campania are very proud of their cuisine. They believe they are the creators of most Italian sea food dishes. Spaghetti Vongole and Zuppa di Cozze (mussel soup) are good examples. Campania's claim is impossible to judge though. For millennia, mariners sailed up and down the coast and brought their local dishes to every port they called on. On this page, I thus am going to focus on lesser know dishes. Albeit - in one way or another - most now made it to the international cuisine.

Scialatielli alla Pescatora, one of the Amalfi Coast's traditional dishes

Scialatielli is one of the signature dishes of the Amalfi peninsula. The hand made fettucine are thicker than what you can buy and come with irregular edges. Internationally, this dish is better known as Linguine or Spaghetti allo Scoglio - you don't have to make the pasta - buy linguine in your supermarket. Found a nice illustration on how this dish is made - almost like Spaghetti Vongole.

Spaghetti allo Soglio - where are the Tomatos?

It is one of my favorite 15 min dishes. Fry the garlic in olive oil. Toss in the mussles or clams, baby squid and shrimps. Add some sliced cherry tomatoes. Extinguish with local white wine. Add the separately boiled linguine or spaghetti. Let it sit for a minute et voilà. It is also a dish you can vary with impunity. You do not need all the ingredients. You can add minced coriander or parsley at the end - as you wish.

Stuffed Anchovies - you need larger Anchovies to make this dish - not a Gluten free Dish!

Slit the anchovies open and butterfly. Season with fresh lemon, salt and olive oil. Make the filling from bread crumbs and local cheeses and cover the anchovies' open side. Bake or fry. The baked variant is better since heat comes from all sides. Serve on a bed of ruccola and cherry tomatoes. It is delicious.

Risotto alla Pescatora (Fisherman's Risotto)

The dish is from the Amalfi coast and became a staple for the communities living from the sea. My guts feeling tells me that this risotto was made from left overs. What ever part of their catch the fishermen could not sell, they threw into the risotto - very similar to Spanish Paella which also started as a leftover dish. I learnt that in a cooking class in Seville. This dish is made like any other risotto with one exception: the broth is made from boiling seafood shells and the shrimp heads (in case you use shrimps). It gives the risotto a delicate, almost unnoticeable seafood flavour. Add the raw seafood just two minutes before serving.

Zuppa di Ceci e Vongole (Chickpea and Clam Soup)

Discovered this dish when researching for this blog. Never had it. Now on my to-cook list. Looks easy to make. You need 1/2 kg of clams and 1/2 kg of chickpeas. Fry a few gloves of garlic, some chilly pepper and a few parsley stems (you will need the minced parsley at the end to decorate the soup) and fry for a minute. Then add the chickpeas and their liquid and cook for 5 minutes. In parallel, boild the clams for about 2 minutes in a laddle of water. Separate the clams in a bowl and put aside. Add the liquid from the clams to the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the parsley stems and reduce the soup for 3 minutes. Then add the minced parsley and serve with toasted bread with a sprinkle of olive oil.

Thanks to the Demand for fresh Seafod from Hotels and Restaurants, there is still a vital Fishing Community on the Amalfi Coast

Pasta e Fagioli con Cozze - Pasta with Beans and Mussels

This is the Napolitano version of a classical farmer's dish "pasta e fagioli" - poor people's food. The dish gets its special seafood flavour from the broth made from boiling a few mussles - similar to the Risotto alla Pescatora. Pasta and cannellini beans are separately cooked and joined when ready. Garlic and mussles are made as for spaghetti vongole and extinguished with white wine. Reduce the liquid from cooking the beans until you get a creamy sauce. Join everything in one bowl or serve separately - both work. Yum!

Polpo alla Luciana is a Dish originating from the District of Santa Lucia in Naples

This is the most time consuming dish presented today. It takes about two hours to simmer over low heat. You don't have to look after it until finished. Place the clean baby octopuses into a deep earthen ware pot together with sliced tomatoes, chilly pepper and parsley. Then cover with olive oil - not too much. Season with salt and pepper. Cook. Once ready, serve directly from the pot with toasted bread sprinkled with a few drops of olive oil. it is worth the two hours wait!

This is all for now - to be continued with recipes for land based dishes from Campania.

Fishing Boats on the Island of Procida between Miseno

Port (old Roman Naval Base) and the Island of Ischia