Ingredients:
800 gr. of big mullets (around 4)
1 onion
1 carrot
An half stalk of celery
10 cherry tomatoes (or 300 gr. of peeled tomatoes)
1 clove of garlic
An half glass of white wine
Grounded parsley to taste
Salt and pepper (or chili pepper) to taste
Extravirgin oliv oil to taste
500 gr. of gnocchetti sardi
You can find this great recipe by “Mani Amore e Fantasia” in one of the best italian food blog: GialloZafferano!
From Mani Amore e Fantasia:
The mullets souce for pasta is a must of many sicilian restaurants which prefer a kitchen based on seafood. it’s been a lot i wanted to make this, so i asked some advices to the true chef in my family, my mother, the one who says “ithastobeeasyandquick” and of course, everything she makes is delicious.
A quick phone call and i get started. I don’t know if this is the recipe made by the most famous restaurants but i promise, this mullets sauce is up to those one!
Preparation:
Clean the mullets, take off the innards, scales and fillet the fish with a sharp knife. DO NOT throw the heads and the fishbones away.
No sweat, you just have to slice the tail and go back to the head remaining closer to the fishbone. In the end, you have to remove all the bones from the fillet: touch it with your fingers to find them out and remove them with small pincers. To make this operation easier, i cut the fillet in half pieces from the long side, exactly where the bones are and i removed them in one shot with my knife.
Now, you have to prepare a “bisque” with the heads and the fishbones. A bisque is a fish broth that we use to flavour this amazing dish. Put the fishbones and the heads in a pot, add the entire carrot, the onion (save a quarter for later), the celery and the cherry tomatoes. Cover all this with fresh water, salt it and cook until the liquid will be retired in half.
In the meanwhile brown the quarter of onion you saved before in a saucepan, adding garlic and olive oil. Add the fillets and cook for a few minutes. Simmer with white wine until reduced, add salt and pepper. Cook for another few minutes until the fish will be a little flaked.
Rice the broth and save the liquid in a cup. Check if there are bones, then add it to the cooked fish. If necessary, cook again for a while to reduce the liquid. You will obtain a lightly dense sauce.
Add the parsley and the chili pepper to taste.
Then, cook your gnocchetti (prepared with your BIG or LITTLE MAMA of course) in abundant salted water for about 20 minutes, drip them and season with the mullets sauce.
Buon appetito!
If you appreciate the recipes made by Mani Amore e Fantasia, check the blog and like their facebook page!
Many thanks Lorenza!
