Top Italian Seafood Dishes You Must Try
Italy boasts a coastline the better part of 5,000 miles in length, and the Mediterranean waters it fronts have historically been host to some of the richest fisheries anywhere. It’s therefore little surprise that Italian cuisine features such an impressive share of seafood: from squid-ink pasta (“black spaghetti”) to octopus risotto, from Gallipoli fish soup (Zuppa di pesce di Gallipoli) to cacciucco stew, from marinated sardines to fried eel.
Here at Mercato Della Pescheria, we obviously take seafood very seriously: Fish is written right into our name, after all. Here are a few classic Italian seafood dishes you can find on our extensive menu!
Frittura di Calamari (Fried Calamari)
One of the quintessential delicacies from the Mediterranean brine along Italy’s long coast is squid, aka calamaro. And one of the quintessential appetizers for a multicourse Italian feast is fried calamari, also an ideal standalone small plate when you’re merely in a snacking mood.
Mercato Della Pescheria’s Frittura di Calamari sees lightly breaded squid as well as shrimp fried to a lovely golden-brown, dressed in a rustic tomato sauce, and paired with fingerling potato chips. Accompany that simple masterpiece with a glass of white wine or rosé—or perhaps a cold pint of Peroni—and you’re off to the races.
Spaghetti Con Le Vongole (Spaghetti with Clams)
Some of the defining pasta dishes of Italian cuisine hail from Naples (also famous, of course, for pizza). Given Campania’s homegrown durum wheat and the bounty of the Gulf of Naples and other nearby waters, it’s no surprise that Neapolitan cuisine sees an assortment of pastas anchoring seafood preparations.
Spaghetti with clams is an absolute classic, and here at Mercato Della Pescheria our own version—noodles bathed in white wine sauce and amply stocked with mouthwatering Manila clams—ranks among our signature dishes.
Shrimp Scampi
Scampi is the plural form of the Italian scampo, which may refer to any number of different toothsome crustaceans: prawns, true lobsters (including langoustine), spiny/rock lobsters, and shrimp. Some classic Italian scampi dishes include scampi a zuppetta (scampi in tomato sauce) and scampi fritti (fried shrimp). A much-loved fixture of Italian-American cuisine, meanwhile, is shrimp scampi, which can come in a number of forms but usually incorporates plenty of garlicky goodness.
That’s certainly the case with our Shrimp Scampi, which sees the crustaceans in question sautéed in a to-die-for blend of garlic, lemon, and olive oil, then tossed with penne pasta and fresh tomatoes.
Tonno Alla Genovese (Genoa Tuna Steaks)
There aren’t many more coveted prizes hauled from the Mediterranean than the Atlantic bluefin tuna. From simple marinated tuna in olive oil (Tonno sott’olio) to Palermo-style grilled tuna (Tonno alla Palermitana), you’ll find this esteemed leviathan of a catch featured in many different regions of coastal Italy. (One of the long-standing traditions of Sicilian fisheries remains the Mattanza, a mass eary-summer roundup of tuna using nets and harpoons.)
At Mercato Della Pescheria, we take some inspiration from Italy’s far northwest in our Genoa-style tuna entrée, which stars charred steaks accoutered with asparagus, pickled radish, and grained mustard with a reduction of red wine.