Fresh Fish: Fillets, Fish Steaks and More

Agghiotta di Tonno is one of the most classic Sicilian ways to cook up fresh tuna: Cubed, and gently stewed with peppers onions, and spices.

Depending upon the size of the amberjack, you may want to cook it whole or just use the fillets. This is a tasty recipe for fish balls made from amberjack fillets.

Cacciatora, in the South, means cooked with rosemary and garlic, and the seasonings work beautifully here.

Anglerfish may look ugly at the market, but its flesh is so tasty as to be known as the poor man's lobster. These medallions are extremely good.

Plain baked fish can be wonderful. However, there are many ways to jazz it up, and spreading a little olive paste over it is quite a nice touch. The recipe will work with both whole fish and fish steaks.

Baked Fresh Tuna, or Tonno Fresco al Cartoccio: This is a classic Versilian recipe, from the coastal plain north of Pisa.

Baked Tuna: Considering how important the tuna catch was in Sicily, it's no surprise that this recipe is Sicilian. It will serve 6.

Bishop's and Country Style Trout: Trote del Vescovo -- The Casentino Mountains of south-eastern Tuscany enjoy abundant rainfall, and consequently have many streams. As is often the case with Italian recipes, the original I worked from doesn't say how many fish to prepare -- figure as many as you expect your diners to want. The Bishop enjoyed meat in his, while the country folk had theirs without.

Breaded Cod Fillets, or Merluzzo Impanato: They're easy to do, and surprisingly tasty too.

A Ligurian fish stew that goes perfectly with the white wines from the Cinque Terre.

Livorno's fiery fish stew, a glaring exception to the rule that Tuscan food is bland

Viareggio's fish stew is milder than what's made in Livorno.

Chilled Tuna Pie, Sformato di Tonno a Freddo: This is a simple cool dish that will work quite nicely in the summer months, and will be a perfect light lunch if accompanied by a tossed salad and a bottle of Vermentino di Luni.

Cod, Vicentina Style, or Merluzzo alla Vicentina: Cod with a little onion and a little milk: one of the most classic north Italian fish recipes.

This is a somewhat more exotic recipe, with curry, and though my father-in-law might wonder at it, my mother-in-law would enjoy it. Though the choice of what fillets to use is up to you, I would go with a more delicately flavored white fish, perhaps perch.

A classic Sicilian recipe that accompanies the cuscus with fish rather than meat.

And other grilled fish as well. Not specifically traditional Italian. but you could encounter them here. He also gives excellent tips on grilling fish.

Fish Loaf, or Pan Pesce: When Lino Bottoni, Mayor of San Remo, a city on the Ligurian coast west of Genova was asked about the conspicuous consumption that's all the rage among vacationers visiting his city, he said it was time people rediscovered pan pesce (fish bread), one of the standard frugal Ligurian dishes of Yore. And gave the recipe:

Fish Pie: If you enjoy a Seven Fishes type dinner for Christmas Eve, chances are you will have some leftover fish to deal with on Santo Stefano (December 26). Here's a tasty idea.

An elegant Neapolitan fish & greens salad that will be perfect in important occasions.

The combination of salmon and monkfish works very well in these fish kebabs with herbs.

Fresh anchovies quickly pickled with onions are delightful with boiled beans.

If you read much about Italian food, you will likely find someone who says Italians never put cheese on fish-based pasta sauces, and perhaps conclude that Italians as a rule don't mix fish and cheese. This is true, but this fresh anchovy and pecorino pie is a tasty exception to the rule.

Fresh Salmon, Salmone Fresco: This recipe is drawn from a volume entitled Il Cuoco Piemontese, which was published in 1766, and was one of the first books written in Italian to present French recipes. Though the book mentions quite a few fish, most only get one recipe Salmon instead gets two, one of which offers many possibilities.

Gilded Cod, or Merluzzo Dorato: Simple as fried fish may be, it is also quite satisfying.

The cartoccio technique is one of the easiest and certainly most impressive Italian cooking techniques: You put your food, usually fish or meat, in a packet with vegetables and seasonings of choice, and bake it. Here we have seabream fillets, seasoned with tomatoes and herbs.

Thanks to their large eyes and the dark band bordered by white at the juncture between body and tail, saddled bream are easy to recognize. And good, too, especially in the spring. According to Alan Davidson, their best end is on the grill. Here they are, served with a simple shallot sauce.

Tonno Cunzatu 'Nta Gratigghia, or Grilled Tuna: There are all sorts of ways to grill tuna, and this, from the town of Scopello, in Sicily, includes an anchovy sauce for the fish. Assuming you buy a piece of fresh tuna weighing about 2 pounds (1 k) you should be able to serve 6.

"I cook a lot of fish stews and soups in the winter and I'm constantly thinking about new ways to flavor them so they don't all end up tasting alike," says Erica De Mane "This can be a real challenge if you're always combining fish with the Italian trilogy of white wine, tomatoes, and garlic."

John Dory is a very fine fish, and reaches perfection when its filets are gently simmered in a fish stock and Marsala.

Get home just in time for dinner, and though there is cheese the salad’s tired and we really don't want pasta… What to do? Wait! We’ve got some zucchini, and there are frozen flounder filets in the freezer... Time to improvise.

Lemon and fish are truly a marriage made in heaven, and this lemony fresh tuna recipe will quickly become a favorite. It's Sardinian.

Marie's Monkfish A la Lobster: A quick, tasty way of preparing monkfish.

There are many recipes for marinated eel. This is from Comacchio, one of the most important eel-producing regions of the Adriatic, and is a simple home recipe.

Marinated Tuna, or Tonno Cunzatu: There are all sorts of ways to marinate tuna. This is Calabrian, involves black olives and lemon, and is ideally suited for a summer meal -- it can be prepared ahead, and is just as good cool as it is hot. It will serve 6.

Trapani was famed for its tuna fisheries until well into this century, when commercial boats working the high seas decimated the tuna populations, and thus marginalized the traditional tuna fisheries. Though you'll no longer be able to get the tuna for this from a tonnara, it will be good, and if you wish you could use other large fish steaks too.

Italians do eat meats and fish, but are also great lovers of vegetables, and with reason: While mixed fried fish is nice, the combination of fish and vegetables provides delightful contrast between the richness of the fish and the textures of the vegetables.

Fritto Misto di Mare, or Mixed Fried Seafood: Little can be more refreshing, or more picturesque, than a fritto misto di mare on the coast. It requires absolutely fresh fish however, and care too, because otherwise it becomes heavy and difficult on the digestion. The traditional fritto misto includes representatives of most of the watery families, including mollusks and arthropods. There's also what's known as...

A rich Neapolitan mixed fried foods dish with all sorts of things, including fish.

Roast Eel, or Capitone Arrosto: This is a classic Christmas Eve dish from Altamura, in northwestern Puglia; the authors of Altamura Antichi Sapori note that prior to the general affluence of today it would have been served in well-to-do households. Since eel is fairly fat, you won't need to use much oil in the sauce below.

Quick, easy, and perfect for company. An elegant salmon recipe.

Fresh ginger is becoming increasingly common in Italian supermarkets, in large part because people have discovered oriental cooking. However, there aren't many Italian recipes that call for it yet. This was presented on a lunch-time TV show, and sounded nice.

Roasting foods in salt is a very easy technique, and despite what you might think, does not result in salty foods: The heat transfers rapidly though the salt and seals what's being cooked. Here, in addition, we have several slices of lemon that further isolate the fish. Though the recipe serves 4, you could easily reduce it (for a romantic occasion) by using a shorter (not thinner) salmon fillet that weighs half as much.

Salt-roasting is a perfect technique for cooking salmon, because the salt will draw some of the oil from the fish, leaving it lighter and easier to digest.

Sardine Balls in Sauce, or Polpette di Sarde al Sugo: Polpette are generally meatballs, though they can also be savory fritters, especially if made with potatoes and leftover roasted meat (ground up for the occasion). However, the word polpetta doesn't imply any particular ingredient -- it's more of a shape, a ball assembled from ground ingredients held together by a binder of some sort, be it egg or potato, and if one wants, one can start with fish. Sicilians do...

Scabbard fish are deep-water fish that look rather menacing, but are extremely tasty. They're also easy to use, because their skins don't have scales -- all you need to do is wipe the skin with a soft cloth, and it's ready. This is a simple recipe for breaded baked scabbard fish.

Sea bass, known as branzino or spigola in Italian, is one of the tastiest fish available, and quite versatile too. This is an elegant recipe that will work well when company comes calling.

Sea Bass Filets, Ligurian Style, or Filetti di Orata Alla Ligure: This recipe is from the Lord Nelson Pub in Chiavari, on the Ligurian coast south of Genova.

Sea bass is in and of itself tasty, and also richly flavored enough to work well with sundried tomatoes, one of the most classic south Italian ingredients.

The perfect way to cook a fresh swordfish steak: Lightly marinated, breaded, and grilled. Perfect!

Sogliole in Saòr, or Sole in a Sweet-and-Sour Sauce: Dino Coltri doesn't mention Sarde in Saòr in his La Cucina Tradizionale Veneta. But he does give a recipe for Sogliole in Saòr, sole with a sweet and sour sauce. He begins by warning that the dish should be prepared at least 48 hours in advance, and can be served either as an antipasto or as a main course.

Sole Miller's Style, or Sogliola alla Mugnaia: The French call this technique Meunière, and it's one of the finest ways to prepare sole or other smaller fish, including flounder and trout. You'll need clarified butter, which you can either purchase or make yourself (see below for instructions).

Nasello, European hake, comes in a considerable variety of sizes, and while some are best suted to being cooked whole, larger ones will yield very nice fillets that are perfect in a zesty bell pepper sauce.

Steaming is a relatively new development in Italian cooking, and with the emphasis on healthy foods lighter cooking methods are attracting attention. Salmon is one of the fattier fish commonly sold, and steaming it will reduce its fat content considerably.

White fish work very well with all sorts of sauces, inlcuding this quick, chunky sauce made with tomatoes and olives.

Steamed Whitefish With a Tomatoey Olive-and-Caper Sauce:

"The angel fish (Rhina squatina) is similar to rays in that its body is flattened," wrote Artusi a century ago. "Its rough, tough skin is used to polish wood and ivory, and as a lining for sheaths for knifes, swords, and similar objects. The flesh of the fish is everyday fare, but when prepared as follows it makes for a very good family dish that's also cheap, given its abundance in our markets."

Stewed Cod, or Merluzzo in Umido: Simple, satisfying, and will feed 4.

Though I generally associate the word saltimbocca with the Roman veal dish, it is quite appropriate with swordfish too, beecause the results are so good that they will seem to fly off the plate, hopping into your mouth as fast as their Roman counterparts do.

Sicily was under Arab rule for a long time, and despite the centuries since then the heritage remains, as is obvious from this rather unusual lemony boiled tuna recipe's name.

Salema, salpa in Italian, is a distinctive fish with bright yellow stripes running down its sides. This is a simple recipe for fish stewed with vegetables, whose colors -- red, white, and green, match those of the Italian flag, or Bandiera.

Tomatoes and Tuna, or Pomodori al Tonno: Tuna fish and tomato go well year round, and become perfection in the summer, when it's hot out. Who could ask for more?

Fried tuna filets served with fresh peas, all delicately seasoned with mint. A classic Sicilian dish.

Tuna Croquettes for Days of Abstinence, or Crocchette di Magro al Tonno: Up until Vatican II (and even now, if one reads the rules), the Church directed that Catholics avoid meats on Fridays, and also during Lent. On these days one was to eat fish, and this was relatively easily if one lived in a port town or near a lake or river that yielded fish. However, not all people did, and even those who did had to come up with something when fresh fish wasn't available for one reason or another.

A rich, tasty way to prepare fresh tuna or any similar fish.

Tuna Marinara Style, or Tonno Alla Marinara: Stewed tuna with tomatoes, olives, and capers. The dish is Calabrian, and is a specialty of the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia.

Tuna Matalotta Style, or Tonnu a la Matalotta: This recipe for tuna stewed with tomatoes is from the Favigiana area in Sicily, and should serve 6.

Tunnu a Palirmitana, or Tuna Palermo Style: Grilled with lemon, rosemary, and sage. The recipe will serve 6.

Tuna with Onions, or Tunnina Ca Cipuddata: This recipe is from Eastern Sicily. It should serve about 6, and is good cold too, which means it's well suited to the summer months (and that it can be prepared ahead).

Tonnu Rigatanu, or Tuna with Oregano: Another Sicilian grilled tuna recipe. In the tradition of older Italian recipes it doesn't give quantities, but rather outlines a procedure. So it will serve as many as you buy fish for. Figure one fish steak per person.

Tonno Coi Piselli -- -- Tuna with Peas

Tuna steaks quickly cooked, and served with a rich bed of stewed peppers. A classic Sicilian dish.

To be quite honest, this salmon doesn't look like much, and owes much of its visual appeal to the brilliant green of the parsley. However, it's very easy, quite quick, and an excellent way to get kids to eat fish: Our daughter demanded seconds and pouted when her seconds were gone!

Whiting filets, breaded and seasoned with herbs, and baked. Quite easy, and you could do this with other kinds of fish as well.