In modern times, every household has an oven and baked fish is gaining popularity. Obviously fish is also boiled or sautéed, but traditionally it was rarely baked, because the majority of people did not have an oven. Usually, fish is fried or grilled in heavy iron skillets or in the square heavy metal grill you can find in every household. In Sicily the fish are cooked whole most of the time and simply dressed with salt, olive oil and lemon. Keep the shellfish in cold water for about one hour, than mix and agitate it with salt and rinse with cold water.įish can be cooked without adding anything to it, it is easy to spoil the natural taste by adding to many herbs, spices or other ingredients. When buying shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters) select small size for tenderness, smell for freshness, wash and scrub each mollusk, and discard any that have an open or broken shell. The flesh should be firm, there should be no missing scales and they should adhere firmly to the body. In fact, a fresh fish has brilliant and clear eyes, the gills the color of the blood, and it should not have a fishy smell. We can debate the value of this similarity, but when referring to fish, it is the head that reveals the freshness of it. “U pisci feti ra testa.” This Sicilian proverb, that translated literally, means “the stink of the fish starts from the head”, is a metaphor to signify that the problems of the people are caused by the ruling class.

Seafood pasta