red mullet tuscan style

[spaghetti]

"Triglie alla livornese" (tuscan style red mullet)
Ingredients:
a dozen red mullets average size, half onion, two garlic cloves, a can of tomatoes or half dozen chopped fresh tomatoes, a handful of chopped parsley, a laurel leaf, little flour, a glass of dry white wine, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Clean wash and dry the red mullet, deep in flour and place in a frying pan containing warm oil. Turn carefully the fish over, then when it turns blonde season with salt, add wine, finely chopped onion, the peeled garlic clove and the chopped tomatoes. Cover and simmer for a few minutes, serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

[Oldsarge]

What would be the primo for that, Spaghetti, a shrimp risotto or a light soup? In any case, I'm sure that there are any number of suitable species off the CalCoast that would fit in there quite nicely. Queenfish come to mind, especially . . . I've still got over half a bottle of good Riesling from the Crab Soup debacle so I'll have to come up with something.

[Bill McIntyre]

That sounds great to me!

When I have been on the Med shores of France and Italy, it seems that what is called a red mullet is what I would call a goatfish. Is that correct?

Red Mullet (Goatfish), All About Fish on the Worldwide Gourmet

Mullet (fish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I did see schools of what I call mullet in the harbor at Calvi while waiting a ferry to Nice, so it seems that real mullet do exist in the Med.

[maytag]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

a dozen red mullets average size, half onion, two garlic cloves, a can of tomatoes or half dozen chopped fresh tomatoes, a handful of chopped parsley, a laurel leaf, little flour, a glass of dry white wine, olive oil, salt and pepper.

That sounds delish. Is it kind of like pan-fried fish with spaghetti () sauce on top?

I've never seen red mullet in the grocery store in any state I've lived in (6). I think your recipe might work with catfish - fish du (tou)jour in the midwest. Smelt, too.

[Oldsarge]

Pike! It would be delicious on pike so I'll just have to pack the other ingredients for this June's expedition. My partner will squawk because he has this bizarre theory that you go fishing to fish and eating the fish is just a necessary chore. Any idea how tired you can get of packaged fish frying mixes? Sheesh!

[spaghetti]

Bill McIntyre: correct. The red mullet I'm talking about is your goatfish (I think it's called that way because of their "beard", somehow goat-looking). It's triglia in italian, rouget in french, mullus surmuletus in latin.
While the "mullet" tout court is a completely different fish. You distinguish the:
- grey mullet (mugil cefalus), which is frequent in ports and where rivers or sewage pour in, not particularily good to eat.
and the
-golden mullet (mugil auratus), which is more rare to find but pretty good to eat. The eggs of the golden mullet (called "bottarga")are very, very, very good: the gonads are slightly salted and dried, to make a super tasty pasta dressing.

This brings me back to Oldsarge question: before the red mullets "alla livornese", what as a first dish, possibly from the tuscan tradition?
Here you are: spaghetti alla bottarga. Cook the spaghetti as normal, and when ready grate a good share of dried mullet eggs, moist with a thin line of extravirgin tuscan olive oil and you're at it. Serve with a cool Vermentino or dry white of your choice.
Just like the "triglie", it's a cheap traditional recipe: tuscan cuisine is not particularily fancy: it's considered a "poor" cuisine because of the cheap ingredients and "spartan" preparations, but tasty as hell!

[Oldsarge]

Ah! We could do a California version using canned whitefish caviar, (much less expensive than the sturgeon vergeon), and then proceed as above with good olive oil. This definitely deserves looking into.

[spaghetti]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

Ah! We could do a California version using canned whitefish caviar, (much less expensive than the sturgeon vergeon), and then proceed as above with good olive oil. This definitely deserves looking into.

Caviar always deserves looking into . But is that fresh or dry? (Just let me say again that our bottarga - the mullet egss we use on pasta - are dry and solid to grate).

[Marwan]

i love red mullet, its quite a popular apetizer in the seafood resaurants here, just fried and garnished with parsley and some lemon yummmmmm!!!

[spaghetti]

Originally Posted by Marwan

i love red mullet, its quite a popular apetizer in the seafood resaurants here, just fried and garnished with parsley and some lemon yummmmmm!!!

In facts, as I said, our tuscan one is a "poor" recipe, for poor people like fishermen of the past generations, who used to sell the best fish on the market, and kept mullets and other cheap fish to feed their families. The spirit of the triglie alla livornese recipe, is to make a great main course with a small "apetizer" fish like that. But now the old traditional recipes are living a new era of glory!
PS-Ah, I forgot: you MUST dip crusted toast bread in the sauce.

[Bill McIntyre]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

In facts, as I said, our tuscan one is a "poor" recipe, for poor people like fishermen of the past generations, who used to sell the best fish on the market, and kept mullets and other cheap fish to feed their families. The spirit of the triglie alla livornese recipe, is to make a great main course with a small "apetizer" fish like that. But now the old traditional recipes are living a new era of glory!
PS-Ah, I forgot: you MUST dip crusted toast bread in the sauce.

I think one of the best seafood meals we've ever had was in Livorno at the end of a bicycle tour from Nice around the Italian Riviera and down through Tuscany. We were there just one night before taking the ferry to Corsica and then back to Nice, and we went into a little dump of a restaurant recommended by the owner of our pensione when we asked where we could get authentic local food. Based on that meal, I found a recipe of fish livornese that is one of my favorites for white sea bass.


And about the basic cheap foods of Tuscany- I don't think I've ever had so many great bean soups and other bean dishes.

[Oldsarge]

I'm not surprised that you had a lot of great bean dishes. My southern relatives have an uncomplimentary term for those north of Roma, mangiafaggioli which means 'bean eaters'. Why that should be insulting, I can't fathom because beans are great. I just bought two pounds of navys because I've got three salciccie in the freezer that are calling to me. Bring on the beans!

I'll have to make the pasta dish with canned, wet caviar because we can't get dried fish eggs here. This is no surprise; very few Northerners (comparatively) immigrated to the US so our delicatessins are full of Southern ingredients. It won't be the same but I don't see how it can be bad.

Unless . . . do any of the Asian cuisines use dried roe? I've got a 99 Ranch market near by that just might have what I need. Investigations are proceeding.

[Bill McIntyre]

I've seen sources for bottarga mentioned in my cooking magazines when the recipes for the pasta dish was given. Maybe I can find them, but of course they it be expensive.

[Bill McIntyre]

I just Googled bottarga and got a lot of hits. Here is one that lists it for an "unbeatable" $100 USD for 18 ounces.

[spaghetti]

Sarge: yes of course in half Italy the typical everyday's dish until the past generation was pasta e fagioli (Another cheap dishes that's now living an era of glory in chic restaurants).
Bill: Bottarga may be expensive nowadays, but it wasn't for the past generations: same as above, a new era of glory for a poor dish et cetera et cetera.

Before you tell us this bass recipe (and please, do), let me keep up beans for a while.

Originally Posted by Bill McIntyre

And about the basic cheap foods of Tuscany- I don't think I've ever had so many great bean soups and other bean dishes.

I'm sure they offered you the Fagioli all'Uccelletto, a tuscan classic! An english translation of this recipe's name might be: "Watch-The-Birdie Beans". In facts Uccelletto means little bird, but there are no birds at all in the recipe.

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Instead of writing the recipe in english (it's late night here and my bed is calling my name) please let me Copy-Paste this one from internet. It's quite correct:
FAGIOLI ALL'UCCELLETTO, beans with a light tomato sauce, are one of the most classic Tuscan dishes, and are a common accompaniment to braised dishes or stews (or served cool as a summer salad, Spaghetti says). Served with Italian link sausages they also make a perfect winter main course. In short, they're comfort food.
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound (500 g) dried canellini (white beans), soaked for 3 hours.
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
7-8 leaves of sage
1-2 peeled fresh plum tomatoes or a small can of tomatoes
Boiling water
Salt and pepper to taste
8 Italian link sausages (optional; see below)
PREPARATION:
Begin by boiling the beans until 3/4 done in lightly salted water. This will take about an hour, though you should begin checking them after a half hour. You don't want them to go soft on you. If you are including sausages, prick their skins lightly with a fork and simmer them in boiling water to cover for 15 minutes to render out some of the fat. Once the beans are 3/4 done, set the olive oil to heat over a medium flame, in a heavy bottomed clay pot or dutch oven. When the oil's hot, add the garlic and the sage (not more than seven or eight leaves; too much sage will make the beans bitter). Cook until the sage crackles and the garlic is lightly browned. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes, then add the beans and bean broth to cover. Season the beans with salt and pepper, add the sausages, and simmer everything until the beans are quite soft, stirring occasionally and adding bean broth as necessary to keep things from drying out.