Colatura - A True Secret Ingredient !

You need to know about this clear amber liquid from Cetara, a small Italian fishing village on the coast of Campania. When the local fishermen catch anchovies, they salt them, stack them in chestnut barrels, and weight them with rocks. Months later, when the anchovies are removed, Colatura is glistening at the bottom of each barrel. It's intense stuff that has been a secret ingredient in Italian cuisine forever. If you have ever attempted to cook Asian food, specifically Thai food--no matter how hard you try, it never quite tastes like at the Thai joint. The difference is almost always fish sauce. Fish sauce is a very salty liquid condiment that smells really bad when opened. It is hard to believe that it actually makes anything taste better when added to it. The reality is that it is magical. Colatura is the Italian version of the Asian fish sauce that works every bit as magical as its Eastern counterpart. Colatura dates back to Roman times when the name for it was “garum”. A few drops of this stuff will make a any bowl of pasta sing and every good tomato sauce dance. It also makes a fantastic Caesar salad. Just add no more than 3 drops at the time to your Italian cooking and you will be surprised what happens!