Linguettine alla colatura di alici di Cetara DOP

Ingredients for 4 persons

• 340 g Linguettine di Gragnano IGP - Pastificio Di Martino
• 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 5 chili peppers
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 7 ml Colatura di Alici Cetara DOP
• Persinette Cress to taste
• Shiso Purple to taste
• Limon Cress to taste

Method

• Peel and thinly slice one clove of garlic.
• Cut one chili pepper into thin rings.
• Finely chop the Limon Cress and Persinette Cress.
• Combine the sliced garlic, chili pepper, and chopped cress in a bowl.
• Add Shiso Purple, colatura di alici di Cetara, and extra virgin olive oil to the bowl and mix well.
• Cook the Linguettine di Gragnano IGP - Pastificio Di Martino for 4 minutes (al dente).
• Mix the cooked pasta with the garlic, chili pepper, cress and olive oil mixture so that the flavors are well absorbed.
• If necessary, add a little cooking water.
• Serve the Linguettine di Gragnano IGP - Pastificio Di Martino on a plate.
• Garnish the dish with a chile on top.

Note: the colatura should never be poured into the pan while it is still on the heat, otherwise all the organoleptic properties of this ingredient will be lost.

The colatura di alici di Cetara is a traditional agri-food product from Campania, produced in the small fishing village of Cetara on the Amalfi Coast. For me, this product is essential in my seafood cooking. Colatura in Italian means “effluent,” referring to the way the liquid is collected drop by drop. The process begins when freshly caught anchovies are de-headed, tailed and gutted before being placed in salting barrels for 24 hours. The origins of this gourmet product date back to the Romans, who made a sauce very similar to today's colatura called garum. The recipe was somewhat rediscovered later in the Middle Ages by coastal monastic communities, who in August used to preserve anchovies in salt in wooden barrels with loose hoops, placed between two beams, called mbuosti. Under the influence of the salt, the anchovies lost liquid, which seeped out through the cracks in the barrels. The method then spread among the coastal population, who refined the process by using wool caps to filter the brine.

Cooking technique: classic cooking in salted water

Recipe: Giovanni Don Anselmo D'Apice