P
Italian · Pisciotta, Cilento, Campania
Tortino di Alici di Menaica al Forno
The alici di Menaica of Pisciotta (Cilento coast, Campania) are caught individually on a small-mesh net called a menaica at night, bled and cleaned immediately on the boat, salt-packed in terracotta anjourie (amphora-shaped jars) with sea salt and wild herbs for a minimum of one year. They are among the finest anchovies in the world — leaner, less pungent, with a complex savoury-sweet depth. This tortino layers them raw in a baking dish with thinly sliced potatoes, olive oil, and fresh tomato, baked until the anchovies melt into the potato.
I
The Market List
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300 g
Alici di Menaica (or finest available salt-packed anchovies)
desalted 30 min in cold water, filleted
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
600 g
250 g
80 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
Cilento if possible
Your own market
Optional
60 g
Gaeta or Cilento black olives
pressed between layers
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
To finish
1 small handful
fresh flat-leaf parsley
roughly chopped; added after baking only
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Place the salt-packed anchovies in a bowl of cold water and soak for 30 minutes. Lift them out, rinse, and fillet carefully. Taste a single fillet: it should be savoury and complex, not sharp or metallic. If still aggressively salty, soak a further 10 minutes. The dish is decided here — under-desalted anchovies will make the finished tortino unbearable.
2
Peel the potatoes and slice them to exactly 2 mm on a mandoline. Hold the slices in cold water until needed, then drain and pat dry. A slice held to the light should be almost translucent.
3
Lightly oil the base of a baking dish. Lay down a single, slightly overlapping layer of potato slices. Arrange anchovy fillets evenly across the potato, then place tomato slices sparingly over the anchovies — tomato is a background element, not a dominant one. Scatter olives if using. Drizzle with olive oil. Repeat the layering sequence — potato, anchovy, tomato, oil — until all ingredients are used. Finish with a top layer of potato slices and a final drizzle of olive oil. The assembled dish should show distinct, even strata with no pooling liquid.
4
Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake at 180 °C for 30 minutes. The dish is ready for uncovering when the kitchen carries a deep, savoury-sweet anchovy aroma and the foil has begun to dome slightly from internal steam.
5
Remove the foil and return the dish to the oven for a further 15 minutes. The tortino is done when the top layer of potato is golden and beginning to crisp at the edges, and a skewer passes through all layers without resistance — the potatoes must be fully yielding.
6
Rest the tortino for 5 minutes out of the oven. Scatter fresh flat-leaf parsley over the surface — parsley added before baking loses all freshness. Serve directly from the dish; the rendered anchovy-olive oil pooled at the base should be offered with crusty bread.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Genuine Alici di Menaica di Pisciotta, salt-packed in terracotta anjourie with sea salt and wild herbs for a minimum of one year — among the finest anchovies in the world, leaner and less pungent than any substitute, with savoury-sweet complexity that is irreplaceable in this dish.
02
Estate — Premium Cantabrian salt-packed anchovies (anchoas de Santoña), whole, in sea salt — richer and more pungent than Menaica but of comparable craft tradition; reduce desalting time slightly.
03
Market — Any reputable whole salt-packed anchovies from a reliable Italian or Spanish supplier, verified by a full, non-acrid aroma on opening. Avoid oil-packed fillets: the preserving medium suppresses the dissolved-anchovy effect that defines the tortino.
04
House — The best-quality oil-packed anchovy fillets available; drain thoroughly, omit the desalting step, and reduce olive oil in the layers by half. The result is acceptable but the characteristic anchovy-oil rendered at the base of the dish will not fully develop.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Taste. A single desalted fillet tastes savoury and complex with no sharp, metallic edge — the moment that decides the dish.
◇Sight. A raw potato slice held to the light is almost translucent — confirming the 2 mm thickness that allows the slice to cook through in the given baking time.
◇Smell. After 30 minutes under foil the kitchen carries a deep, savoury-sweet anchovy aroma and the foil domes slightly — the signal to uncover.
◇Touch. A skewer passes through all layers of the finished tortino without resistance — the potatoes are fully yielding and the dish is done.
◇Sight. The top layer of potato is golden and beginning to crisp at the edges after the final 15 minutes uncovered.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies on the desalting of the anchovies: a fillet that is still sharp or metallic will make the finished tortino unbearable, and no subsequent step can correct it.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Sparkling wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance