Colatura di Alici

Just made spaghetti with colatura di alici for dinner. Never heard of the stuff until I stumbled upon a recipe calling for it. Its basically anchovy “juice”. Serious umami. Very briny and fishy in the best way possible. Pasta sauce was an emulsion consisting of garlic, chili flakes, capers, parsley, lemon zest and juice, olive oil, and colatura emulsified with the starchy pasta water. You definitely need this in your life.

yeah! great with dry roasted vegetables like cauliflower and carrots too.

Great rec! Will be giving it a go next time I make Gjelina’s cauliflower.

Elliot - Binh-To says that she’s way ahead of you - Colatura is basically fish sauce. She’s been eating that all of her life.

It’s totally different. In fish sauce, you try to limit the amount of oxygen in the fermentation and even boast of the degrees of nitrogen. In Colatura, which is a type of Garum, it’s an open ferment so you’re introducing deeper, oxidized notes like in soy sauce or sherry. There’s also significantly higher concentration of fish flavor and less salt.

Thanks for dropping some knowledge. Didn’t know what the difference in production was between the two. Glad to know.

Eric, has Binh-To been using Colatura as well as fish sauce all her life? I literally never heard of it till a few weeks ago. I feel so left out

No - just fish sauce - I was just giving you a hard time. Actually, I had to look up Colatura as well. When I found it the description said like fish sauce with a deeper flavor. Even the manufacturer didn’t have as good a description of it as Paul offered.

cheers. The important part here is it’s great and it’ll add a great dimension to your vegetables.