Chef Mattia Borroni‘s recipe
Alexander Restaurant
Ravenna
Ingredients for the preparation of fish
- saraghine
- a handful of ground bread
- garlic and parsley
- oil
Ingredients for the side dish
- portulaca/purslane
- carrots
- celery
- onions
- vinegar
- white wine
- spring onion
- basil
- lemon peel
- black garlic cream
- parsley oil
Saraghina is a blue fish very rich in iodine and Omega 3, with very few calories (only 93 per 100 grams) and very little cholesterol.
Present in large quantities in our sea, saraghina (also called sprat) is considered the Romagna fish DOC with which you can prepare a tasty second course, but also a condiment for fresh pasta or the filling of piadina.
Grilled Saraghina is the recipe chosen by the young chef Mattia Borroni, originating from Milan and Marche.
He was barely an adult when he came to Ravenna to visit a friend and immediately fell in love with the city and its cuisine.
Self-taught and with natural talent, already recognized by Identità Golose and a hat in the L’Espresso Guide, he gained experience in several important restaurants in Milan, then with chef Riccardo Agostini at Piastrino di Pennabilli.
Today as chef at the elegant “Alexander” restaurant and one of the protagonists of the new Ravenna cuisine, he is hailed as the young flagbearer of the newly born “RavennaFood”.
To prepare his recipe, the chef cleans the saraghine in water, removing the heads with his hands, rinsing and emptying the entrails.
On the side, the chef has already prepared the breading, prepared with breadcrumbs flavoured with parsley, a hint of garlic and a flourish of oil, in which he carefully turns the saraghine.
At this point, according to tradition, they should be laid on the grill, but chef Mattia prefers to cook them in a pan lined with lightly oiled baking paper, which keeps the small fish “softer” during cooking.
So, with the creativity that is Borroni’s mark of distinction, it is how the dish is presented that makes the difference: at the centre, the fish is seasoned with parsley oil, enriched by the aromas, flavours and colours of black garlic paste, carrots, celery, onions in carpione (prepared with vinegar and white wine), greens from the portulaca garden and a final sprinkle of grated lemon peel.