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Stewed Dog-Fish
(Palombo in umido) Cut the dog-fish in rather big pieces and then make a hash of garlic, parsley and very little onion. Put this hash on the fire with oil and when it is sufficiently browned, put the pieces of dog-fish and season with salt and pepper.
When the fish is cooked pour over some tomato sauce (No. 12), let this simmer for a while, then serve. 128
A plain Italian braise that depends almost entirely on the quality of the fish. Two things decide the outcome: buying shark that has been handled properly, and not overcooking it.
- What palombo isPalombo is smooth-hound, a small Mediterranean shark sold in Italian markets as thick boneless steaks. It is not the same as North Atlantic spiny dogfish, though that is the usual substitute. Swordfish, monkfish or thick cod loin all work in the same braise.
- Ammonia and freshnessSharks and rays carry urea in their flesh, which breaks down into ammonia after death. Fish that smells sharply of ammonia at the counter will not improve in the pan. Buy from a busy counter, use it the day you get it, and if it has been sitting, an hour's soak in acidulated water or milk helps.
- SustainabilitySeveral smooth-hound and dogfish stocks are depleted and some are under catch restriction depending on where you are. Check a current local advisory before buying; a firm white fish is a straightforward swap here.
- "Rather big pieces"Steaks about an inch and a half thick, or chunks of similar size. Small pieces will fall apart in the sauce and dry out before the tomato has had time to reduce.
- The battutoThe "hash" of garlic, parsley and onion is a battuto — everything chopped fine together, then softened in olive oil. "Sufficiently browned" means the garlic is gold and fragrant, three or four minutes over medium heat. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter.
- TimingShark and other firm fish take roughly 8 to 10 minutes for an inch-and-a-half steak. The recipe has you cook the fish first, then add the sauce and "simmer for a while" — keep that second stage to five minutes or so, or the fish goes dry and stringy.
- The tomato sauceSauce No. 12 in this book is a plain tomato sauce. About a cup of any plain, unsweetened tomato sauce will do; jarred marinara heavy with herbs or sugar will bury the fish.
- YieldRoughly two pounds of fish feeds four. Serve with bread, or with boiled potatoes added to the pan for the last ten minutes to take up the sauce.
In umido — literally "in the damp" — is the Italian term for anything braised in a little liquid, usually tomato, and it is a common treatment for inexpensive fish. Palombo was for a long time exactly that: a shark with cartilage instead of bones, sold in tidy steaks, cheap enough to be an everyday supper in Rome and along the Tuscan coast, where it also turns up cooked with peas or with beet greens. It appears here in Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919), a slim volume aimed at American households curious about Italian cooking.