Eel Cacciatore

Recipe second for 4 people based on Eel - cooking method fried.

Preparation:

Preparation: Once cleaned, cut and washed, the eel is fried with oil, salt, garlic, rosemary, sage and chilli pepper. It is left to cook until it takes on a golden color and then the wine is added. Once all the wine has been consumed, the eel is ready to be served piping hot. Eel alla Vernaccia takes up the same recipe except that Vernaccia is added to a normal local wine. It is a non-traditional but promotional recipe adopted by some restaurants, taking up and interpreting in their own way the quotation from Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy in the XXIV canto of Purgatory: '... and that face beyond him more than the other quilts he had the holy Church in his arms: from the Torso he was and purges for fasting the eels of Bolsena and the Vernaccia'. The poet refers to Martin IV, pope from 1281 to 1285, known for being a great glutton and among his favorite meals it seems there were also fish from Lake Bolsena.