How To Salt Anchovies

Liguria boasts some of the most rugged topography in Italy, a steady succession of high mountains plunging to the sea, and as a result the population lived (and lives) mostly in the valley mouths, drawing some substance from the flatter parts of the valley floors, and the remainder from the sea. One of the most important seasonal catches was the anchovy: For most of the year anchovies are pelagic fish that live far out to sea in deep water.

However, during the mating season (summer) they move closer to shore, and school, especially at night, and Ligurian fishermen discovered that though they are drawn to the light of the moon, they will also come to a lantern. At Monterosso, one of the Cinque Terre, the catch was especially important: they would set out in several rowboats, and while the small ones with lights brought the fish together, another would row around the school, dropping a net with floats above and weights below that formed a circular curtain, as it were, which could be drawn tight from beneath to form a fish-filled bowl.

The fishermen would scoop their catch, which was called Pan do Ma (bread from the sea), into barrels, and bring it home.