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Trout Alpine
(Trota all'alpigiana) These are many ways to prepare this delicious fish, found in abundance in the many streams of clear water that run from the Alps and the Apennine mountains. Often the trout is cooked in wine, but, of course, this part many be changed.
For the trota all'alpigiana, so called because it is the favorite dish of Piedmont, the trout must be cleaned, scaled, washed, wiped then salted and left under the action of the salt for about an hour. Pour in a fish-kettle one quart of white wine to which will be added three medium sized onions a few cloves, two sections of garlic and a little bunch made of thyme, bay-leaf, basil or mint; finally a piece of butter as large as an egg, dipped in flour. Then put the trout in the fish-kettle and place on a strong fire. When the liquid has boiled the trout is cooked. Remove the onions and the bunch of greens and serve the trout with its gravy and some parsley.
A straightforward wine poach that depends entirely on not overcooking the fish. The original's timing instruction is the weak point and needs translating into something you can actually judge.
- The hinge: doneness, not boiling"When the liquid has boiled the trout is cooked" is a poor guide on a modern burner, where the liquid can reach a boil in a few minutes while the fish is still raw at the bone; it presumably assumed a slower-heating kettle and range, so that the fish poached for some time before the surface moved. Bring the wine and aromatics to a simmer first, slide the trout in, and hold it just below a simmer until the flesh at the thickest point flakes and the backbone releases — roughly 8 to 10 minutes for a 1 lb fish.
- The fish-kettleA long, narrow, lidded pan with a perforated lifting rack, sized to hold a whole fish flat in a shallow bath of liquid. A roasting pan on the stovetop, a wide sauté pan, or a deep skillet works; a rack or a sling of doubled cheesecloth lets you lift the cooked trout out without breaking it.
- "Two sections of garlic"An Italianism translated literally — spicchi, meaning two cloves, not two heads. The "few cloves" earlier in the sentence are the whole spice; three or four is plenty against a quart of wine.
- Butter as large as an eggAbout 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. Dipping it in flour makes a crude beurre manié that lightly binds the poaching liquid into the "gravy" served at the end.
- The quart of wineA full quart will submerge one or two modest trout in a properly narrow kettle; in a wide pan you may need more, or you can baste and turn the fish once. Any dry white will do — the Piedmontese context suggests something like Gavi or an Arneis, but nothing expensive is called for.
- The hour in saltA dry salting that firms the flesh and seasons it through. Use about a teaspoon of coarse salt per pound of fish, rinse and pat dry before poaching, and season the wine lightly, since the fish has already taken salt.
- Finishing the sauceThe recipe says only to remove the onions and herbs. The poaching liquid will be thin; lift the trout to a warm platter, boil the liquid down by half or more, and pour it over. Chopped parsley goes on at the last moment.
- YieldOne trout of about a pound serves one generously or two as part of a longer meal. Two fish will fit in most pans without increasing the wine much.
Trout was the everyday luxury of the Alpine and Apennine valleys — a fish that cost nothing but the catching, in places where sea fish arrived rarely and expensively. The name all'alpigiana simply means "in the mountaineer's manner," and the method here is a familiar one for river fish in northern Italy: a short bath in local white wine with onion, herbs and a lump of butter, belonging broadly to the court-bouillon traditions that Piedmont shared across the border. Butter rather than oil tends to mark it out as northern; a Neapolitan or Sicilian cook would more often have reached for the oil bottle. The book's framing is worth noting too — this is an Italian cookery book written for an American readership in the early twentieth century, and its author pauses to explain where trout come from and that wine cooking is optional, a reassurance offered to a kitchen that had not yet met the cuisine on its own terms.