Yearly when Gambero Rosso pronounces the winners of the tre bicchieri (3 glasses) of their Vini d’Italia information, I examine if there are any wines that I wish to attempt. Solely 400-500 wines win a tre bicchieri award per yr, so it’s fairly prestigious. Within the 2025 version I observed a winner from Lazio (the world round Rome) that I discovered significantly fascinating, as a result of it was a varietal wine of a grape selection that I had by no means tasted earlier than: Bellone. It was the Anthium Bellone 2023 by Casale del Giglio. On their web site, the vineyard suggests to pair this wine with a Minestra di Sgavajone, a typical soup of the fishermen of Anzio made with the broth of the native fish known as Sgavajone, not often discovered exterior the household residence. Anzio is a fishermen’s city that’s lower than 10 miles from the vineyard and about 1 hour South of Rome (in addition to inside the province of Rome). Sgavajone is the native identify for tub gurnard, a fish that’s normally often called gallinella di mare (hen of the ocean) in Italy, as a result of it has a wattle below its head, similar to a rooster. The vineyard gives a recipe for this soup, which jogs my memory lots of the basic recipe for bouillabaisse. It’s a recipe to make use of up fish which are too small to promote, because the fish is boiled for two hours, after which handed by way of a sieve to take away the bones and create a soup that’s thickened with pureed fish. This can be a very laborious course of and it will even be a waste of the very good massive tub gurnard that I had picked up from my fishmonger. I did a little bit of googling and located this recipe for vermicelli al sugo di sgavajone, which is from the identical city and makes use of the identical components because the minestra, however then to make a sugo to serve over pasta. Vermicelli is simply one other phrase for spaghetti (Italians love to make use of a unique phrase for a similar meals when you transfer to a different area — to show my level, that recipe mentions that the identical fish is also called còccio within the native dialect). And so that’s what I ready to pair with the (very good and reasonably priced) wine. I made just a few modifications to the recipe to enhance the flavour (I lowered the fish inventory and used it within the sauce reasonably than boiling the spaghetti in diluted inventory) and enhance the feel of the fish (as boiling the fish will lead to dried out fish — I allowed the fish to cook dinner gently within the residual warmth of the sauce).
An fascinating level was that the recipe additionally included pecorino cheese (which is clearly pecorino romano as we’re so near Rome right here). Italians normally frown upon serving cheese with any sort of seafood, and even think about it sacrilege. However in line with this recipe it’s a native customized to serve it on this dish, so I did attempt it. I appreciated it, though it did overpower the refined taste of the fish (which is strictly the explanation why Italians normally don’t serve cheese with seafood).
Elements
Serves 3-4
- 1 tub gurnard of about 800 grams (1.8 lbs), filleted, with head and bones reserved for the inventory
- 300 grams (.66 lb) spaghetti
- 1 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 onion, chopped
- 750 grams (1.7 lbs) contemporary ripe plum tomatoes, ideally San Marzano
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 anchovy fillet, minced
- 80 ml (1/3 cup) dry white wine
- 1 Tbsp minced contemporary flat leaf parsley
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- further virgin olive oil
- salt
- freshly grated pecorino romano cheese, elective
Directions
Season the fish fillets with salt on each side…
…after which slice the fish into chunk measurement items. Refrigerate the fish to permit the salt to penetrate into the fish.
Use the fish head and bones, carrot, onion, and celery to make a fish inventory, utilizing the identical technique as in this recipe.
Sieve the ensuing fish inventory into a large and shallow pan, then convey it to a boil…
…after which simmer the inventory over medium warmth till it has been lowered to about 125 ml (1/2 cup), and reserve.
Whereas the inventory is simmering, peel and seed the tomatoes as described in this recipe, after which puree them utilizing a blender or meals processor.
Warmth 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Add a minced clove of garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes, and stir over medium warmth till the garlic simply begins to paint. Don’t enable the garlic to show brown, as a result of that can make it bitter.
Add 80 ml of dry white wine.
Permit the wine to scale back by half to burn off the alcohol, then add the pureed tomatoes.
Convey to a boil…
…after which simmer the tomato sauce till it’s not watery (which you’ll be able to inform as a result of it not ‘bleeds’ clear liquid while you use a spatula to clear a part of the underside of the pan, as proven within the photograph).
Now add the reserved fish inventory.
Convey a big pot of water to a boil. When the water boils, add salt and the spaghetti. Boil the spaghetti for the time indicated on the bundle for al dente.
When you are ready for the pasta water to come back to a boil, convey the sauce to a boil…
…and simmer it once more till it’s not watery. Flip off the warmth if this occurs properly earlier than the pasta water boils.
Proper after you add the spaghetti to the water, make sure that the sauce is simmering, after which add the reserved fish…
…stir till it’s fully lined with the sauce…
…after which cowl the pan to permit the fish to cook dinner within the sauce. The warmth needs to be off or very very low. The sauce ought to undoubtedly not boil, as that may dry out the fish.
Stir after 5 minutes or so, then cowl the pan once more.
The fish will cook dinner within the warmth of the sauce, however stay succulent.
When the spaghetti is al dente, drain it, and add it to the sauce, along with a lot of the parsley.
Stir to combine, then serve directly on preheated plates, sprinkled with the remaining parsley, and drizzled with the most effective further virgin olive oil you possibly can afford. Freshly grated pecorino romano is elective.
Wine pairing
It goes with out saying that we paired this with the Anthium Bellone by Casale del Gigilio. Many different Italian whites would work as properly, like a Vermentino from Sardinia or a Verdicchio from Jesi or Matelica.
