What is Rosamarina
There is a goodness in Calabrian cuisine, the so-called "Calabrian caviar, which is also called "Sardella Calabrese" or "Rosamarina", produced by mixing juvenile sardines with salt and Calabrian chilli pepper.
Although 'nduja (a very spicy salami cream) is the identifying product of Calabria, especially abroad, we could consider this sardine cream as the sister of the famous salami cream, but in a fish version.
The names of this newborn fish caviar can vary, in fact this is called "rosamarina" on the Tyrrhenian Sea, while on the Ionian coast it is called "pilchard".
The history of the Calabrese sardella
It is more than certain that the sardine is a reinterpretation of the ancient "Garum" which the ancient Romans were enthusiastic about.
It was a fish-based sauce, but less refined than that of Calabrian houses.
– Garum is mentioned 20 times by Marcus Gavius Apicius (in his famous recipe book “De re coquinaria”), a Roman gourmet and lover of luxury, who lived in the XNUMXst century AD, during the reign of Tiberius.
– Pliny the Elder in Naturalis historia (XXXI, 93 ff.) said that the best garum was garum sociorum, made with mackerel and coming from Spain, produced by a Tunisian company of Phoenician origin, which exported mainly to Italy. This was expensive as a perfume. Famous garum factories also existed in Italy, Campania, Pompeii, Clazomene and Leptis Magna.
Soft bread (pitta) with sardine
– Seneca in a letter to Lucilius (Epistulae ad Lucilium, XV, 95, 25), shooting his arrows against food excesses, especially against garum: “illud sociorum garum, pretiosam malorum piscium saniem, non credis urere salsa tabe praecordia? ”
(“And that gravy that comes from the provinces – it is the garum sociorum that Pliny also spoke of – an expensive pie of dead fish, don't you think it will burn your insides with its spicy rot?”).
– Describing the dinner given by Trimalchio in the Satyricon.
Petronius meticulously describes an enormous tray, in the center of which a hare in imitation of Pegasus prevails, and in the corners four statuettes of Marsyas, from which garum and pepper sauce gush garnets on a fish placed in a canal supported in such a way as to appear alive and swim in the sea.
– Finally, Martial – in Epigrammata (XI, 27, 2) – praises a friend of his called “Flaccus” who knows how to resist the smell emanating from a girl who has drunk six measures of garum. Furthermore, in epigram III, 77, 5 he criticizes the use of “putris allec” (putrid herring) in the dishes.
In conclusion, this short list of historical testimonies speaks volumes of our sardine, as a fantastic legacy of ancient gastronomy and restores a precious tradition with a pinch of nostalgia.
Today the Calabrian sardine
The Calabrian sardella is a delicious legacy of Mediterranean cuisine, but it's cheap and good.
The garum, on the other hand, was derived from the entrails of the fish which was treated together with a large quantity of salt (the mixture was in fact macerated in the sun for long periods, releasing the liquamen, very similar to the famous anchovy sauce) and was expensive.
Garum was a product for wealthy families who could afford it by paying considerable sums, and was used as a condiment.
The ingredients
The main problem for the preparation of sardella, this wonderful fish cream, is finding the raw material, i.e. juvenile sardines.
Their fishing today is regulated by very strict laws and can only be carried out between January and March, in derogation of article 15 of the European regulation EC 1967/2006, in fact the Mediterranean regulation has prohibited such fishing.
Therefore, a good, easily available substitute is on sale: the so-called ice-fish which can be found, thawed, in fishmongers or, frozen, in supermarkets.
However, it is not suitable for preparing our sardine, which obviously requires anchovies or newborn sardines, and has a grayish color unlike icefish, which is white. In fact, finding prepared sardine today is very difficult.
Below we show you the recipe of how it is prepared in Cirò Marina, in the province of Crotone
RECIPE
Ingredients:
1 kg of newborn fish
50 grams (minimum) of ground chilli
dried wild fennel seeds
If you want, you can add ground sweet pepper.
Preparation:
Wash the newborn fish well until the water runs clear.
Put the fish in a bowl with some salt and put a weight on it.
Squeeze out the fish sauce and season it with the chilli pepper and wild fennel.
Homogenize and put in glass jars with a layer of olive oil.
use:
Sardella can be eaten pure on bread or it can be used to flavor pasta.
Also excellent with eggs, as an omelette, or on a fried egg. Good in potato boats or in the typical "pitta”, a soft bread.
The sardine is a versatile product. The only precaution is to eat it in small quantities because it is particularly spicy.
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