What do I cook tonight? The big question is repeated, even today after a long weekend of relaxation. A trip outside or some time spent crouching on the sofa between one film and another. The time to dine always seems to arrive suddenly, without slowing down even now that the holidays are approaching, without giving discounts to those who, feeling already on holiday, have given up a little 'grip on the domestic organization. In these cases, all that remains is to ask for help from those magical ingredients that populate our dispensation throughout the year, ready to save us. Such as the anchovies and their discreet sea air. Fillets preserved in oil and ready to brighten the palate in sauces, as an aperitif or on a simple crouton. But tonight at the anchovies we ask for something more, that is to say help us organize an entire dinner.

The hot appetizer

They answered our cry for help Zarotti anchovies, starting from fillets coming from the Cantabrian Sea. Right here, in the north of Spain, one of the finest anchovy qualities that are caught in spring is alive. Handmade, they become a product faithful to the oldest traditions and amaze for the texture of the pulp, size and taste.
In the recipe of pumpkin cream with croutons and anchovy fillets from the Cantabrian Sea rolled up, we can appreciate the perfect intensity to contrast with the sweetness of the pumpkin. This dish is the starter of our impromptu dinner based on anchovies and to prepare it, just follow a few simple steps.

The recipe is made in 40 minutes and the portions are for 4 people:
Cut into cubes a kg of pumpkin previously deprived of peel and seeds and brown in a saucepan with a little oil and a clove of garlic. Prepare the vegetable stock separately. After a couple of minutes, remove the garlic, add a potato, peeled and cut into cubes. Then stew the vegetables with a ladle of broth and while cooking add the remaining broth. Once cooked, pass the vegetables and heat them in the same container. Add a glass of cream and keep warming up. toast 4 slices of bread with a little oil and cut into cubes. Pour the cream into the cocotte, lay the anchovies and the croutons of bread and decorated with a dash of cream and a sprig of rosemary.

The cold appetizer

The second course of our menu based on anchovies and vegetables focuses on the pleasant combination of two intense flavors: that of anchovies associated with peppers. The anchovies used to prepare this dish, are the Ricciolose Zarotti, or double fillets rolled around the flavors of the Mediterranean garden such as spring onion, stuffed olive, chilli pepper, caper. And it is precisely this latter that characterizes the recipe of the rolls of red, ricotta and ricciolose peppers with capers.

This recipe is made in 30 minutes and the portions are for 4 people:
Wash two red peppers and peel them with peeler. Remove the petiole and cut into 6 layers each, lengthwise. Cook them in boiling salted water and acidate with vinegar for 5 minutes. Drain gently and leave to cool on a kitchen towel.
Finely chop two fillets of Zarotti anchovies, chop some chive stalks and mix to 300 g of ricotta cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the mixture in a sac a poche and stuffed each pepper from the inside. Roll them up and arrange them gradually on the serving plate.
Serve three rolls per person, placed on each one curly Zarotti with caper, decorated with a sprig of thyme and completed with an emulsion of oil, salt and pepper.

The first

To continue with a simple and appetizing first course, Zarotti recommends to focus on paccheri in onion and sage stew with colatura and anchovies. We used them to prepare them traditional anchovies in olive oil Zarotti, fleshy fillets with a soft taste perfect to enrich simple first courses like the one we are going to prepare.

The dish is prepared in 30 minutes and the portions are for 4 people:
Cook 300 g of paccheri in plenty of salted water and add half in the same water onion thinly cut.
Brown the remaining onion and another with a drop of anchovy oil, blend with the leakage and a little 'cooking water of the pasta and cook for about ten minutes.
In a pan, meanwhile, melt a small jar of Zarotti anchovies in their own oil with the addition of a drizzle of olive oil and cook for a few minutes. Drain the pasta al dente together with the onions, start by risottarla in the bottom of anchovies and let it cook over high heat, adding a few ladles of water.
With an immersion blender blend the onions put to dry with the pouring, correct with salt and pepper and whipped with olive oil to form a cream. In a deep dish pour the mirror cream and place the paccheri on top. Complete with a crude turn of olive oil.

#quellidellealici

The hashtag that identifies Zarotti on social media says a lot aboutcompany love for the sea and for its fish treasures. The vessels used are equipped with seizure networks which they do not ruin the seabed: this type of fishing involves negligible levels of waste and incidental catches and respects the maximum sustainable yield levels in respect of minimum size and fishing quotas. THE'absence of dyes and additives and the use of 100% recyclable materials such as glass and tin are a further step towards a production that lives in harmony with the environment that surrounds it.

"Fishing, embedding, salting, seasoning and putting in oil is our way of believing in nature and never losing sight of it in what we do in life and in our company".
(Felice and Alfredo Scermino)