San Pietro in Salsa

Pike is the fish traditionally used in this dish when it is made in the countryside around Mantua, but Vanna Corbellani Camerlenghi assures me that when city-dwelling Mantuans can’t get pike, they use delicate white-fleshed San Pietro, John Dory, instead. And a good thing too. Pike are full of tiny bones and are extremely difficult to scale. If John Dory, a saltwater fish, should prove difficult to track down, substitute cod, haddock, or scrod. I’ve even used trout with ver