Apulica — Taste Travel Together

APULICA / FISH AND SEAFOOD

Mammola stockfish

PAT · Fish and seafood · Calabria

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

Stockfish is not Calabrian by birth: it is cod caught and dried in the Nordic countries, which reached Italy through the ports of Genoa, Venice and Naples. The regional record dates the start of this trade to 1561, when the dried fish was also used as a bartering good. For Calabria the hub was Naples, then capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: small boats carried the cargo to the little harbour of Pizzo, and the bales then travelled by mule along the old tracks up to Mammola.

The first documented processing in Mammola dates from the first decade of the nineteenth century, although some historians quoted by the Region believe the product was already known in the early eighteenth. The village water proved well suited to softening the fish, demand grew, and the motto "Mammola, town of stockfish" was born, still familiar across the region.

It was once food for the poor: farmers gave it to labourers on the hardest working days because it was so nourishing. Today it is a sought-after dish, also protected by the municipal De.Co. mark.

Sources: Regione Calabria — Schede PAT: preparazioni di pesci, molluschi e crostacei (scheda Stocco di Mammola) · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Mammola e Cittanova, le città dello stocco

Area and method of production

The production area is the municipality of Mammola, on the Aspromonte foothills of the Ionian side, in the province of Reggio Calabria. The fish arrives dry and hard and is made edible here through a process the Region describes as entirely artisanal.

Work begins by trimming the outer fins; then the dried cod goes into running water, in a series of linked tanks. On the second day it is opened with a billhook, above and below; on the third the opening is completed, on the fourth the bones and belly flaps are removed, on the fifth the membrane is taken off. The following day the fully softened fish is ready to sell.

The decisive role belongs to the water: springs of the Aspromonte-Serre range are rich in minerals such as calcium, iron and magnesium, and according to the regional record they give the soaking fish an ideal maturation. Workshops have marble walls and white tiles, granite and steel tanks, and specially shaped billhooks made by hand by local craftsmen.

Sources: Regione Calabria — Schede PAT: preparazioni di pesci, molluschi e crostacei (scheda Stocco di Mammola) · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Mammola e Cittanova, le città dello stocco · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Piatti tipici calabresi a base di pesce

How to recognise it

Mammola stockfish ready for cooking is white, shaped like an opened, rehydrated cod, and full in flavour. The regional record presents it as a concentrated food: one kilo of stockfish matches, in energy, about five kilos of fresh cod. It is low in fat, rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, and easy to digest.

What sets it apart from any other stockfish, according to the Region and the regional tourism portal, is the soaking in the local spring water, combined with the skilled hands of those who have worked it for generations: it is this combination that gives the product the taste it is known for throughout Calabria.

Besides the shops and markets of the villages of the Limina mountain community and the Ionian coast, Mammola stockfish is found in several fishmongers along the coast between Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria, and it even reaches some shops in Belgium and Luxembourg, especially at Easter and Christmas.

Sources: Regione Calabria — Schede PAT: preparazioni di pesci, molluschi e crostacei (scheda Stocco di Mammola) · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Mammola e Cittanova, le città dello stocco

In the kitchen

The signature dish is stocco alla mammolese, cooked in a terracotta pan: red onion is softened in oil, peeled tomatoes are added, then potato wedges, pieces of stockfish, brined olives and dried chillies. The pan is shaken rather than stirred, so the fish stays whole; the belly flaps, called trippiceji, can be added to taste.

The regional record lists other traditional recipes. Stockfish salad uses fish briefly blanched and flaked, dressed with oil, garlic, parsley, lemon and chilli. Grilled stockfish is cooked over embers and basted with salmoriglio, a mix of oil, oregano, garlic and lemon. A stockfish and tomato sauce dresses bucatini, while the fish itself is served as the main course.

The regional tourism portal also mentions stockfish stewed with potatoes and olives, and spaghetti with stockfish. For wine, the Region suggests a local red or a classic Cirò.

Sources: Regione Calabria — Schede PAT: preparazioni di pesci, molluschi e crostacei (scheda Stocco di Mammola) · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Mammola e Cittanova, le città dello stocco · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Piatti tipici calabresi a base di pesce

Where to taste it

The place to taste it is Mammola, a village in the Reggio Calabria hinterland on the Ionian side of the Aspromonte. The best time is the Sagra dello Stocco, held every August in the old centre: the regional record gives 9 August and describes the stockfish served in terracotta pans, the tianeji, amid traditional songs and dances. During the festival it comes in many versions, from starter to dessert.

A visit to Mammola also means wandering the lanes and fishmongers of the historic centre and seeing the MuSaBa, the Santa Barbara Museum, a contemporary-art park-museum created by the artists Nik Spatari and Hiske Maas and known for its fresco of Jacob's Dream.

On the Tyrrhenian side of the province of Reggio Calabria, Cittanova also calls itself a stockfish town: its stockfish, processed in an almost identical way and with the same Aspromonte water, has its own municipal mark and a festival of its own, also in August.

Sources: Regione Calabria — Schede PAT: preparazioni di pesci, molluschi e crostacei (scheda Stocco di Mammola) · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Mammola e Cittanova, le città dello stocco · Calabria Straordinaria (Regione Calabria) — Piatti tipici calabresi a base di pesce

Protection

When

Where

Calabria