Scapece

Name: Scapece
Yield: makes about 3 pounds
Ingredients: All-purpose flour; 3 pounds fresh sardines, fresh anchovies, smelts, or other small, whole fish, scaled, cleaned, and filleted; Extra-virgin olive oil; Fine freshly made bread crumbs, pan-roasted in olive oil; 2 heads garlic, the cloves peeled, crushed, and finely minced; 1 teaspoon saffron threads; 5 to 6 cups plus 2 tablespoons good white wine vinegar

January 24, 2012

An ancient practice to conserve some windfall of fish or vegetables is to fry them in good olive oil and tuck them under coverlets of bread crumbs into a vinegary bath. The addition of saffron is a fillip only half a century old, when the golden pistils began to be prized beyond their value as a pharmaceutical (page 58). A dish made traditionally also in Puglia, I think the Abruzzesi hands fashion the most luscious versions. Zucchini or eggplant may be treated in the same way as the fish.

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