Trote alle Vernaccia

By John, 14 August, 2025
Region
Italy
Description

"Trout alla Vernaccia"I got Ada Boni's wonderful Italian Regional Cooking many years ago and it is still one of my favorite sources of inspiration. This Sardinian dish captured my imagination probably 15 years ago and I have wanted to make it ever since.

It took about 10 years to find the wine. There are oceans of Vernaccia di San Gimignano available, it's a fine dry white wine made from the Vernaccia grape in Tuscany, but the Sardinians have a different idea. The Vernaccia di Oristano is a fortified wine made like a sherry, aged in oak and chestnut barrels, and it's considerably more expensive. They are nothing alike and one cannot be substituted for the other.

I guess it became a quest, and now it has reached a happy conclusion! 

Yield
4 Servings
Preparation time
5 minutes
Cooking time
25 minutes
Total time
30 minutes
Ingredients
1 c Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 clv Garlic (finely chopped)
3 sprigs flat leaf parsley
1 Rosemary
1 t Oregano, Fresh
1 small carrot (finely chopped)
2 Trout (cleaned)
750 ml Vernaccia di Oristano (no substitutes)
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a pan large enough to take all the trout in one layer, add the garlic, herbs and carrot, and simmer over a low heat until the carrot is soft.
  2. Clean the trout, wash them well and pat them dry. Lay the trout on top and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Cover completely with Vernaccia wine and cook over a moderate heat until almost all the wine has evaporated.
  4. Serve the trout very hot, straight from the pan, with the cooking juices as a sauce.
Notes

Ms. Boni says "Vernaccia di Oristano is a dry, pleasantly bitter aperitif with the style of sherry. Sardinians drink it both before and after meals."

You can make this with the fish opened out as shown in the photo, or you can fit twice as many fish in the pan if you cook them 'whole". This is appealing, and traditional, but it uses much more of the expensive Vernaccia di Oristano. I had only one bottle and I wanted to give my guests the opportunity to taste it.

Source

Ada Boni: Italian Regional Cooking, 1969