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Thursday 14 July 2011

Sicilian tuna recipes by Franca Colonna Romano.


With the Cornish tuna boat Ben Loyal back at sea (and an update from Quentin and the boat's blog) it's time to plan for the next landing and some suitable recipes for albacore tuna. Much prized around th Island of Scicilly, tuna were a part of everyday eating alonmg the coastline during the tuna season.

The recipes below are found in the book, Sicilia in Bocca - Sicily in the mouth - by Franca Colonna Romano, published in 1976. The dedication on the cover reads, Si li pinnuli sarannu nuintati a lu postu di li belli manciati mi vuliti divi chi cosa arresta fui fari na bella festa which loosley translates from the Sicilian to "may you enjoy eating some of these dishes under the stars in good company". This particluar copy was awarded to the delgates of the 1978 Iveco Conference at the Villa Sant'Andrea in Taormina, Sicily.
 The book is full of superb illustrations........  The book provides three version of each recipe,......
  the first in a Sicilian dialect........... 
 - followed by the Italian and then English version - the first dish is for Palmerjtan or Siraceusan Tuna involving marinating with garlic and oil simmered with tomatoes.......
the second recipe looks as though it is for fish cakes - but be warned, the translator appears to have used the words for fish cakes when they should have used fish balls - as the word polpette means meatballs!........
as can be seen from the Italian version........
and the Sicilian version - elsewhere potatoes are used when the recipe should read tomatoes! This famous Italian writer's cook book is a collectors item and first editions like this are extremely rare.
Fishing for swordfish.