Fish - Lake Como Cuisine

Recipes of lake fish

Culadur: the interiors of the fish – what remains from making the missoltini – are used. Ingredients: oil, onion, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, salt, pepper, dry white wine, grated cheese. Brown the onion in oil, add the culadur and stir for at least 5 minutes, until their original red color changes to brown; add a spritz of white wine, the breadcrumbs and the chees, salt and pepper, and lemon zest, and brown it for another 5 minutes. Culadur is excellent spread on two slices of bread or polenta.

Shad or bleak fish in carpione: carpione is a sauce which usually accompanies the shad or bleak fish. The base of this dish is wild thyme (pess) which grows on along walls and between rocks in the Lake Como. Ingredients: an abundance of thyme, a garlic clove, an union, chives, sage, a cup of vinegar, a cup of water, two tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and shad or bleak fish. Remove the scales and interiors from the shad fish, and wash them. If using bleak fish, washing them is sufficient. Fry them, drain them, and place them in a large stock pot. In a saucepan, cook the smashed garlic and thinly sliced onion in the oil, then add the chives, sage leaves, vinegar and wild thyme. Cook for 5 minutes, then pour it over the fish. The shad or bleak in carpione should be eaten 24 hours later at room temperature.

Sarach: is a large fish called pich (Danube Roach) which is usually dried in salt with an open belly – like dried salt-cured cod. Sarach - particularly flavorful – was eaten with a slice of polenta.

Rice and fish filet: 6 filets of fish – perch if possible – are needed for each person; also necessary are 1 egg, white flour, breadcrumbs, a lemon, oil, butter, salt, grated cheese, garlic and some sage leaves. First coat the filets in flour, then in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs. Fry them in a pan with oil and butter, getting them golden brown on each side. In the meantime, cook the rice in salted water, drain it and prepare it on the plate, sprinkling it with some grated cheese; at this point, as a decoration, place the filets on top of the rice, like flower petals. In another pan, brown some sage leaves and sliced garlic in butter, and pour over the already decorated plate and serve.

Based on the book: Tacàa al fööch by Lucia Sala - Editions Cesarenani.