Squash, anchovies, orange, Bluefin tuna bottarga
On the topic of the squash, “pork for the poor”, scholars disagree. Some say that it was cultivated from the remotest antiquity in America while some claim it was native to Asia, arriving from India to the Peninsula by way of the usual Phoenicians. We Sicilians could care less, we love squash and are exactly halfway between the West and the East. Whether it arrived at the turn of the 16th century or was already cultivated in the times of Carthage does not change the fact that the squash, here, is at home. And I like to joke around with Marziale, the Roman poet, who to laugh at Cecilio, wrote this epigram, “A lunch based on squash”:
Cecilio is the Atreus of the squash
So well he cuts them into pieces,
as if they were the sons of Tieste.
Straight away you’ll have them as an appetizer
and then again
in the first course and in the second
and in the third course, more squash
and finally, squash for dessert…
Squash, anchovies, orange and bottarga is a dish that represents simplicity as a point of arrival, the beauty of ingredients and of natural forms.
A rectangle of yellow squash, baked in the oven, lies over a sauce of sour cream with marinated anchovies, orange segments, bottarga, and bergamot gelatin. This is life, history and geography: a mixture of flavors.
Note
The squash in this case is Sicilian butternut, born in the ‘30s thanks to the tenacity of a farmer from Massachusetts. The Bluefin tuna bottarga is one I make with Alfio Visalli, flavored with rose petals and elderberry, while the anchovies are straight from the nets of the Testa family, who have fished in the Sicilian seas since 1800.
In every recipe there must always be a catalyst element that literally pulls at the brain’s waves. In this case, the role is taken on by bergamot gelatin.