The jots of coast and whatever sea fish they might offer have little embellished the Lucanian cuisine, yet the fat, brown trout from her rivers and lakes are coveted, stalked. The most characteristic prescription for their cooking is to scent them with the wild herbs one finds near the water, stuff them with a few crushed olives, wrap them in a slice of pancetta, and roast them, on site, over a beech or chestnut wood fire.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6

　　2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

　　1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves

　　3 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and minced

　　10 ounces large black and green Sicilian or Greek olives, crushed lightly with a mallet, stones removed, flesh chopped coarsely

　　6 cleaned, skinned, filleted trout

　　12 thin slices pancetta

　　

Step 1

Go fishing. Build a wood fire. Warm the olive oil in a small pan over the fire before it gets too hot and soften the rosemary with the garlic. Combine the aromatics with the olives and spoon it over the insides of the opened trout. Lay a slice of pancetta over the olive mixture, close the trout, and wrap another slice of pancetta around the trout’s belly, securing it with a toothpick.

　　

Step 2

Roast the trout, in a wire fish griller or on an oiled grate, over the fire for 2 or 3 minutes to the side. Drizzle the roasted fish with a few tears of good oil and eat them with oven-toasted bread and a red wine. Though the trout can be sautéed in olive oil, it would seem to smudge the whole idea of their rusticity.

　　A Taste of Southern Italy