Colatura di alici facts for kids
Colatura di alici is a special Italian fish sauce. It comes from a small fishing village called Cetara in Campania. This sauce is made from anchovies. It looks like a clear, amber-colored liquid. People make it by letting salted anchovies ferment in small wooden barrels. The anchovies used for this sauce are caught along the Amalfi Coast. They are harvested between March 25th and July 22nd each year.
History
The story of colatura di alici goes back a very long time. It started in ancient Rome. Romans made a similar sauce called garum. This sauce was very popular for flavoring food.
Later, during the Middle Ages, some monks found the old recipe for garum. Every August, they would salt anchovies in wooden barrels. They noticed that a tasty fish sauce would slowly drip out through small cracks in the barrels.
Over time, this method spread around the region. People made it even better by using wool sheets to filter the sauce. This made the colatura di alici clearer and purer.
One common way to use this fish sauce is in a dish called spaghetti alla colatura di alici. This simple and delicious meal includes spaghetti, a little bit of the fish sauce, garlic, and olive oil.
