Stockfish
The stockfish, "a fish reaching places where there is no sea", has always been a popular product in the hinterland of Calabria. In the past, schooners and brigantines coming from Northern Europe docked at Pizzo harbor, unloading bales of stockfish which, following the road of Serre, headed for Aspromonte. In the area of Mammola, the presence of water rich in calcium, magnesium, and iron, and therefore particularly adequate to soak the stockfish, favored the birth of a flourishing activity based on the fish drying process. Today there are still firms purchasing from wholesalers the stockfish coming from Norway: after processing it, they resell it ready to be cooked in many ways: fried, in the oven, stewed, with potatoes or peppers, in salad with chilli pepper, garlic, and parsley. It is possible to taste this product and many others along the streets of the ancient town of Mammola on 9th August, during the Stockfish Festival.
