BRACIOLINE DI PESCE SPADA ALLA MESSINESE

Bracioline di Pesce Spada alla Messinese image

Categories Bread Sauce Side Roast Stew Swordfish

Yield serves 6

Number Of Ingredients 15

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Ingredients

1 1/2 cups fresh mint leaves
1 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
4 ounces pine nuts
6 ounces green Sicilian olives, lightly crushed with a mallet, stones removed, and coarsely chopped
4 ounces dark raisins, plumped in warm Malvasia delle Lipari or any sweet, ambered wine
1/3 cup capers preserved under salt, rinsed
4 ounces pecorino
6 ounces freshly made fine bread crumbs, toasted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Freshly cracked pepper
Fine sea salt, as needed
2 pounds swordfish, sliced into 1/4-inch steaks
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup Malvasia delle Lipari or any sweet, ambered wine

Steps:

With a mezzaluna or a very sharp knife, finely mince 1 cup of the mint and parsley together with the garlic to a fine paste and transfer it to a large bowl. Lightly pan-roast the pine nuts. Add the olives, raisins, and any residual liquid and the pine nuts to the bowl along with the capers, pecorino, bread crumbs, and the egg. Generously grind on the pepper. Work the elements to a well-amalgamated paste. The pecorino and capers should be salty enough to flavor the paste, but after tasting it, add a bit more if you wish.
Lay the bracioline on a work surface and pound them lightly but firmly with a mallet, thinning the flesh a bit. Spread each steak with a good tablespoon of the paste, roll it into a fat little sausage shape, and secure the braciolina with a toothpick. Over a lively flame, heat the oil in a large sauté pan and very quickly cook the bracioline, sautéing them well but taking only a minute or so to do it so as not to overcook the fish. Remove the bracioline to a holding plate.
When all are cooked, discard any remaining oil and rinse the pan with the 2/3 cup of Malvasia, scraping and stirring and permitting the wine to reduce for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour the sauce over the bracioline and present them, strewn with 1/2 cup mint leaves, warm or at room temperature.
Sacrificing the beauty of the sauce, one could skewer the bracioline onto well-soaked grapevine twigs, olive wood twigs, thick branches of rosemary, or metal skewers, alternating them with bay leaves and roasting them over a very hot wood fire for a minute or two on each side, basting them with olive oil. They'll need some accessory-a spoonful of warm tomato vinaigrette would do nicely.