The Romans believed it cured many ailments including dysentery and diarrhea. It was kind of like the garlic of the day. In Ancient Rome, They, apparently, used garum to season practically everything, including meat dishes and vegetables. Mix and toss the spaghetti so that the pasta gets well coated with the colatura sauce. Although, historians believe there was a garum factory in Pompeii. The production of Roman garum took place mostly in Numidia, an area that would be Algeria today and Spain. However, the Romans used fish guts instead of the cleaned fish they use in today’s colatura. Add the cooked spaghetti to the condiment in a big bowl A little colatura history.Ĭolatura is actually a modern version of a very old Italian fish sauce made and used by the Ancient Romans called ‘garum’. Some producers add a small bunch of oregano to the top of the bottles before closing with a cork. This adds one last boost of flavour to the Italian fish sauce, while naturally filtering it at the same time.īefore bottling, they filter the colatura through linen cloths. The colatura drains through the barrel, passing through the layers of anchovies. When the producers decide it is ready to bottle, they make a hole in the bottom of the barrel. Although some colatura is bottled after 6 months!Īs the anchovies ferment, the liquid or colatura collects at the top of the barrel. Once the barrel is full, it’s closed with a wooden lid which is pressed down using heavy stones.Īs mentioned earlier, the anchovies are left to ferment, release liquid, and age for up to three years. So these barrels are a third of the size of standard barrels. The word terzigni comes from terzo meaning a ‘third’. Then they layer the anchovies (again by hand) with coarse sea salt in small wood barrels called ‘terzigni’. The fresh anchovies are cleaned (heads removed, gutted and filleted) by hand and then left to rest in a mixture of water and salt for about 12 hours! mix and stir the sauce well to make it 'creamy'. But the locals say the best anchovies are caught in May. The period for anchovy fishing on the Amalfi coast is from the end of March until the beginning of July. Plus, a little colatura goes a long way so you aren’t likely to finish the bottle quickly! Add just a few tablespoons of colatura to the sauce. It also has a more mellow taste than most Asian fish sauces. It’s salty and tastes of the sea without being ‘fishy’. These are foods that have a flavour you could never replicate by making them any other way! Italian fish sauce, for example, is intensely delicious. Some people may think the price of these food products, including colatura, isn’t justified. In fact, there are aged balsamic vinegars that are made by one generation and sold by the next! Put crushed garlic, chopped parsley and peperoncino in a large bowl. What’s made today cannot be sold often for years and yield is usually low. What all these products have in common, apart from being unique and incredibly delicious is that they are generally quite expensive! The reason for the cost is understandable. But, for me, it includes products like aged Balsamic vinegar, Lardo di Colonnata or di Arnard, Culatello di Zibello, aged cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano and tuna or mullet bottarga and colatura! You only need a few ingredients for alla colatura A list of these would actually be quite long. If you are a big Italian food fan, you most probably know of or have tried a number of Italy’s famous aged food products that are still produced according to ancient traditions and considered gastronomic gems. It’s kind of the aged Balsamic vinegar of fish sauces! However, lovers of fish sauce will definitely fall in love with colatura! Why is colatura expensive? Italian fish sauce is also more expensive than most Asian fish sauces as it’s a specialty product that’s aged for up to 3 years and made according to ancient traditions. It’s a delicacy from The Amalfi coast that Italians mostly use on pasta particularly in this spaghetti alla colatura recipe. Firstly, unlike fish sauce in Asia, colatura isn’t widely used in the Italian kitchen. What is colatura?ĭid you know there’s such a thing as Italian fish sauce? It’s called colatura and is made in a very similar way to and with the same basic ingredients as Southeast Asian fish sauce. Both this recipe and the Italian fish sauce originally come from Cetara on Italy’s Amalfi coast. Spaghetti alla Colatura is a no-cook pasta aglio olio that’s made even more delicious with the addition of Italy’s umami delicacy, colatura. Jump to Recipe Print Recipe Spaghetti alla Colatura Recipe from The Amalfi Coast.
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