Cernia Imperiale (Italian)

I shall sing the praises of this fish. Hauled out of the Ionian Sea at nightfall, from a tiny rowing boat, when the water has faded to aquamarine, it is often more than a metre long, with an enormous armour-plated head, a marine monster patterned with rust red, vermilion, bronze, gold. Quite apart from its taste, its appearance designates it as ‘imperial’, and qualifies it for the fate described under ‘An Apulian Bachelor’.