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Menaica anchovies

Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Fish and seafood · Campania

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

Menaica fishing is a very old technique, once common along every Mediterranean coast and now surviving in only a few places. One of them is the Cilento, and especially Marina di Pisciotta, a small seaside village halfway between Velia and Capo Palinuro. The Campania Region traces this fishing ritual back to classical times and stresses that it has stayed almost unchanged over the centuries.

Menaica, or menaide, anciently minaica, is the name of both the boat and the net. Only a few fishermen still practise it, seven or eight boats at most, going out at night in their gozzi. In the past, when fish were more plentiful, the anchovies were kept in terzarole, large wooden barrels; today small terracotta jars are used.

The Slow Food Presidium was created to secure an income for this group of fishermen and to save, together, a tradition, a small local economy and a product of great quality. Menaica anchovies are also listed among Campania's traditional food products.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alici di menaica · Regione Campania — Alici di menaica (prodotto tradizionale) · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The fishing area covers the sea off Pisciotta and the Cilento coastal villages where the technique is still used, from the Gulf of Agropoli to the Gulf of Sapri, within six miles of the shore. Fishing takes place on calm nights between spring and summer: the Presidium gives April to July, with a broader spring-summer season from March to August.

At dusk the fishermen lay the net out at sea, across the path of the shoals. The mesh sorts the fish by size: it holds the larger anchovies and lets the small ones through. Caught anchovies quickly lose most of their blood in the sea. The net is hauled aboard by hand, and the fish are taken out one by one, with heads and guts removed at once.

The anchovies travel in wooden crates without ice or any other cooling and are processed straight away, in the morning: washed in brine and laid in terracotta jars in alternating layers with salt, then covered and pressed. They mature in the magazzeni, cool, damp rooms where boats were once sheltered, for at least three months according to the Presidium; the regional record gives six.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alici di menaica · Regione Campania — Alici di menaica (prodotto tradizionale)

How to recognise it

Salted menaica anchovies are recognised by their pale flesh, white with pinkish glints, and an aroma both intense and delicate. The Campania Region describes a very particular taste, full yet refined.

The Region links these qualities to a process in which every step has stayed in the hands of local know-how: the net that keeps only the larger fish, cleaning on board, transport without ice, immediate salting and slow maturing in terracotta jars. The Presidium adds that the anchovies must mature without drying out too much.

They are sold in small terracotta jars holding a few hundred grams of fish, a size that reflects a limited, artisanal production.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alici di menaica · Regione Campania — Alici di menaica (prodotto tradizionale)

In the kitchen

Menaica anchovies are eaten fresh or salted, raw or cooked, and many Cilento recipes are very simple. There is the raw anchovy salad, just whitened with lemon and dressed with oil, garlic and parsley, and there is a very quick anchovy sauce for spaghetti: simply fry the anchovies in a little oil with cherry tomatoes, garlic and chilli.

Other dishes take more work but stay true to a few ingredients. Inchiappate are anchovies opened and filled with goat's cheese, eggs, garlic and parsley, then floured, fried and cooked in tomato sauce. Ammollicate are split anchovies dressed with breadcrumbs, garlic, oil and parsley.

Finally, cauraro is a dish of potatoes, broad beans, anchovies and wild fennel, bringing the garden, the countryside and the Cilento sea together in one pot.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alici di menaica

Where to taste it

The home of menaica anchovies is Marina di Pisciotta, on the Cilento coast between Velia and Capo Palinuro. Here the catch is bought straight from the fishermen when they return to the harbour very early in the morning, and jars of salted anchovies are sold by the fishermen and the village's small artisan workshops. It is a tiny market of a few boats: arriving early is part of the experience.

The Cilento, with the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, the archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia and the Certosa di Padula, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. The coast around Pisciotta offers the Palinuro headland with its caves and the Sentiero della Primula, while to the south lies Marina di Camerota.

The best time to see the fishermen at work and taste fresh anchovies is the fishing season, between spring and summer; salted anchovies, once matured, are available in the following months.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alici di menaica · Regione Campania — Alici di menaica (prodotto tradizionale) · Italia.it (Ministero del Turismo) — Il Cilento

Protection

When

Where

Campania