The Man Who Ate Everything - Jeffrey Steingarten [131]
Cannolicchi (capelonghe): razor clams
Capitone: a long, fat type of eel
Cappe sante (capesante): large scallops, sweet and tender
Carpa: carp
Cefalo (lotregan, verzelata, bosega, caustelo, volpina): varieties of gray mullet, of which the cefalo durato (lotregan) is the most esteemed
Coda di rospo: monkfish tail; literally tail of the toad, though most of this fish is an extremely ugly head; formally, rana pescatrice
Cozze (peoci): mussels; also called mitili
Datteri di mare: sea dates, related to mussels; eaten in soup or spaghetti sauce; embed themselves in rocks, which must be hauled from the sea and smashed to harvest them
Dentice: sea bream
Folipetti (folpeti): baby octopi, boiled and served warm with a drop of vinegar
Gamberetti: small gray shrimp, which jump like crickets on trays in the market
Gamberi (gambari): shrimp; gamberi di fiume are crayfish
(Go): yellow and black, used for soup and as a base for risotto
Grancevola (granzeola): spider crab, delicate and sweet; the crabs are boiled, and the meat is meticulously picked from the shell
(Granzoporo): increasingly rare shore crab; small, slightly furry, with powerful pincers; much sought after in the south of France
Latterini (anguela): sand smelts, like long, silvery sardines
Lumachine (bovoleti): tiny sea snails, similar to periwinkles
Mazanette (masanete): tiny crabs, a little larger than your thumbnail; boiled, chopped into two or three pieces, and served with chopped garlic; you chew on the shells to extract the flesh and juice
Mazzancolle: large, blue-gray shrimp
Mazzola: sea robin, pinkish gray and used in soup; Marcella says that the broth is as esteemed as capon broth; discarded in the United States; called gurnard in England and pesce capone in Liguria
Merluzzo (merluso): hake, small and gray; cooked as in recipes for whiting
(Moleche): soft-shell crabs, two and a half inches across, like the smallest and most prized specimens in the United States; found nowhere in Italy but Venice
Mormora: small striped bream, silver and black, excellent grilled
Moscardino: tiny curled octopus, often brought to Venice from Liguria, wonderful deep-fried
Murici (garusoli): snails that live in a murex shell, unlike French snails or the Italian lumache
Orata (orada): gilthead bream, called daurade in France; the highest attainment of the bream family; like the apotheosis of a U.S. porgy
Ostriche (ostreghe): oysters, now rarely harvested in Venice
Paganello (paganelo): small and creamy gray, used like the larger go for soup and broth
Pagello: reddish sea bream
Papalina: sprat, halfway between an anchovy and a sardine
Pesce spada: swordfish
Polpo (folpo): octopus
Razza (raza): skate, ray
Rombo chiodato: turbot, diamond shaped, with nail head–like protuberances, prized for its delicate flesh
Rombo liscio (soaso): brill, like rombo chiodato but less esteemed
San Pietro (sampiero): John Dory; called Saint-Pierre in France; a dark mark remains on its side where Saint Peter touched it; also called sampietro
Sardina (sardela, sarda): sardine, sleek and silvery with turquoise reflections
Scampo: langoustine in France, Dublin Bay prawn in England, unavailable here; rose-gray or pink, with claws and feelers like a small lobster; among the most delectable of all crustaceans; scampi are not large shrimp, as Italian menus in the United States pretend
(Schile): the tiniest of shrimp, they remain gray when cooked; increasingly rare; sometimes known as gamberetti grigi in Italian
Scorfano: scorpion fish, bony, reddish, used for soup; racasse rouge in France and indispensable to bouillabaisse; scorfano is slang for “ugly person”
Seppie (sepe): cuttlefish; eight tentacles but more tender than octopi; their ink is sweeter and milkier than the squid’s in risotto and gnocchi; their broad, flat bones hang in birdcages the world over
Seppioline: baby cuttlefish, as small as your thumbnail, irresistible when deep-fried whole; season begins in August
Sgombero: mackerel
Sogliola (sfogia, porato): sole, the world’s finest flatfish, says