Baking Bluefish

Azzurro—“blue”—is what in Italy we call all such dark-fleshed fish as tuna, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. These species, and several of their related varieties, are dense in the Italian seas, yet among them there is nothing to surpass a freshly caught Atlantic bluefish. Freshly caught is the necessary distinction, because the oils that make the flesh of this fish sweet and succulent begin to turn rancid and sharp within 36 to 48 hours after it’s landed.

Start with bluefish as fresh as the kind I get on the south shore of Long Island from my favorite fishmonger, John Haessler of Wainscott; prepare it as a cook on the Riviera or the Adriatic shore might if she or he could come by such a specimen; and you may find yourself contracting the craving that Italians have for the dark flesh of all kinds of pesce azzurro.