Typical fish menu from Lake Garda (Italy).

1. Italian Fish Menu
from Lake Garda

2. Appetizers:
•Herrings from Lake Garda
•Olives Rivierasca type
First Courses:
•Risotto with tench
•Lean Casoncei
Second Courses:
•Aole a Sisà
•Whitefish fillets with vegetables
Desserts
•Lemon Sorbet
•Sassi del Garda

3. Herrings from Lake Garda
Ingredients: 400 g of salted herring, 1 cup extra virgin olive oil Garda, 1
tablespoon fennel seeds, 2 or 3 bay leaves, 1 clove of garlic, 1 glass of milk
Preparation: wash thoroughly herring under a
jet of cold water to remove salt from the current
conservation.
When they are washed, put them to soak in milk
for 1 hour
Then, remove from milk, dry carefully and place
them on a hot grill.
Toss them on the grill trying not to break them
until they are completely cooked, place them in
a bowl with the bay leaves, fennel seeds and
whole garlic clove.
Cover the fish with olive oil and serve after 2
hours.

4. Olives Rivierasca type
The meaning of this undoubtedly laborious tanning, is to sweeten the bitter taste of the
olives from which we obtain the precious extra virgin oil from Garda and keep them in
brine and then eat them as you want, even with the appetizers.
Ingredients:1 kg of olive oil from Riviera del Garda, 1 kg of wood ash, 50 g of
quicklime, water q. b, 2 wild fennel (or, alternatively, 1 tablespoon fennel
seeds), salt
Let dissolve the lime in a bowl then add
water and stir the ashes until you get
some kind of smooth sauce. Take the
washed olives, dry them and put them into
the bowl. They must be kept in the tanning
for about 1 week until they are well
softened. Remember to toss them from
time to time! After the week, wash them
and put them in a basin of water that
needs to be changed 3 times a day for 4
or 5 days. Then store them in a pot of very salty water (salty enough to float an
egg) together with wild fennel, cut into pieces or a tablespoon of fennel seeds.
You will have to wait about 2 months before you can try.

5. Risotto with tench
Ingredients: Two tench 800 g each, an onion, 400 grams of tomatoes, five
sage leaves, 100 g butter, 50 grams of oil of Garda, 40 grams of white flour,
a glass of dry white wine, 400 grams Vialone nano rice, nutmeg, tarragon,
parsley, pepper, salt.
Preparation: Clean carefully the tenches. Cut them to pieces, flour, add salt,
fry in oil and butter with thinly cut sage and onion. When they are golden
brown, remove the pieces and sift all the cooking sauce, add the tomatoes,
the aromas, the wine and cook for at
least 30 minutes. Smash the pieces of
tench carefully with your hands, remove
any bones, spine or any part of skin that
could be there. Add the obtained pulp to
the cooking sauce and continue to cook
for another twenty minutes. With this
dressing, which will be abundant,
proceed with the preparation of a risotto
in the usual cooking method. Cook the heads of tench in a pint of salt water
for half an hour to obtain a broth for the rice. Serve hot with a knob of butter
for each dish and a little bit of pepper.

6. Lean Casoncei
Ingredients: For the pastry: 400 g of flour, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon of extra virgin
olive oil, salt.
For the filling: 300 g of cottage cheese foam ("Puin" mountain), 50 g of bread
crumbs, 3 eggs, 150g boiled chard, salt and pepper.
For the dressing: 70 g of butter, a few leaves of sage, rosemary 80 g of Parmesan
cheese
Put the flour, salt, eggs and olive oil on the
pastry board. Knead well until all ingredients are
mixed and then roll out two sheets, not too thin.
Separately prepare the stuffing in a bowl with
ricotta adding bread crumbs, boiled eggs, and
finely chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Stir all
the ingredients adding breadcrumbs if the
mixture becomes too wet. Put on the pasta, at a
distance of about 2 fingers, many filling balls, as big as a hazelnut, cover with
another sheet, close the dough between a ball and the other with your fingers and
cut casoncelli moon-shaped or triangles as you like. Let them dry on a cloth
sprinkled with flour and cook in plenty boiling salted water in an uncovered panand
let them boil slowly. Drain them well, dress them with melted butter, sage and
rosemary and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Serve hot on hot plates.

7. Aole a Sisà
Ingredients: 1 kg of aole, 3 large onions, 1 / 2 cup water, 1 / 2 cup beef
broth,100 g of white flour, 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or, if you prefer,
vegetable oil for frying 1 / 2 cup of vinegar, salt
Preparation: In a large pan put plenty of
extra virgin olive oil to heat. Thinly slice
onions: when the oil is frying, pour the
onions and, before they start to roast, add
water and broth to keep them white and
then let them cook. In the meantime you
have carefully washed, dried, breaded in
flour and fried in plenty of olive or seeds oil
the aole. When the onions are almost
cooked, add the fried aole and simmer,
covered, adding at the end 1 / 2 cup of
vinegar and a little bit of salt. This dish is
served with polenta.

8. Whitefish fillets with vegetables
Ingredients: 2 vendace 300 g each, 1 onion, 2 zucchini, 1 stalk of celery, 1 ripe
tomato, 1 / 2 cup white wine, 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Garda, a few
leaves of basil, salt, pepper
Preparation: wash the fish
thoroughly under a stream of cold
running water. Drain it and , after
drying it, divide it into 4 fillets. In a
pan heat extra virgin olive oil and
put the fillets to brown on both
sides, then moist them with white
wine and add salt and pepper.
When all the wine has evaporated,
remove the fish from heat and
keep warm. Meanwhile, wash the
vegetables, chop the onion and celery and cut zucchini into thin strips, then
brown them in oil. Cut tomatoes into cubes and put it in the pan with basil
leaves, add salt and cook for a few minutes. When the vegetables are ready,
pick up the fish and place it on a warmed serving dish, pour the vegetables and
serve hot.

9. Lemon sorbet
Ingredients: 500 g lemon ice cream, 2
glasses of sweet sparkling wine
Preparation: mix for a few minutes in a
pot the ice cream and the wine. Serve
the sorbetto in flute glasses with straw.

10. Sassi del Garda
Ingredients: 500 g chopped
almonds
200 g sugar
Water
Preparation: Mix the almonds in a
pot with sugar and a few spoonfuls
of water. Heat the mixture without
boiling it till you obtain a firm
dough.
Form some balls with your hands
and cover them with almond
powder.
Keep them in refrigerator for an
hour at least and serve.