Pike cooked slowly with capers, sardines and vinegar and served with polenta; a dish of the upper Mantua area and the lower Lake Garda shore. Arco dei Gavi lists it.

ScattiDiGusto's guide to eating on Lake Garda describes luccio in salsa as a dish of the upper Mantua area and the lower lake, served with grilled polenta after slow cooking with capers, sardines and vinegar. Trattoria Arco dei Gavi lists luccio in salsa mantovana con polenta on its menu. The pike is one of the lake fish named in guides to Garda restaurants, with coregone (lavarello), perch and trout.

Where to eat Luccio in salsa (luccio e polenta) in Verona

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Make it at home

Serves 42 hrIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 600g pike fillets (skin off; substitute white-fleshed lake or river fish if pike unavailable)
  • For the court bouillon: 1 onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 200ml white wine
  • 2 litres water
  • For the sauce: 100ml extra-virgin olive oil, 8 salt-cured anchovy fillets (chopped), 3 tablespoons capers (rinsed), 1 garlic clove (minced), 1 small handful flat-leaf parsley (chopped), juice of half a lemon
  • For the polenta: 250g yellow polenta, 1 litre water, salt, 30g butter
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Make the polenta: bring 1 litre salted water to the boil; whisk in the polenta in a steady stream and cook on low heat, stirring, for 35 to 40 minutes until smooth and pulling from the pan sides.
  2. Pour the cooked polenta onto a wet board to a 2cm thickness and cool 30 minutes; cut into 8 squares.
  3. Make the court bouillon: combine all bouillon ingredients in a wide pot and simmer 15 minutes.
  4. Add the pike fillets and poach 8 to 10 minutes at a bare simmer until just opaque. Carefully remove and pat dry.
  5. Make the sauce: warm the olive oil gently in a small pan, add the garlic and anchovies, stir until anchovies dissolve (2 minutes). Off heat add capers, parsley and lemon juice.
  6. Grill the polenta squares 2 minutes per side until char marks appear.
  7. Plate two polenta squares per person, top with a pike portion, and spoon the sauce over generously.

Editor tip. Substitute zander or any firm white lake or river fish if pike is unavailable; the sauce-and-polenta technique is the canonical Veronese frame.

Common allergens: Fish.