Breaded amberjack with colatura di alici

To prepare the breaded amberjack, make a broth with Ramata di Montoro Campanian onion, fresh celery and carrot. Grill the onion, peeled and cut into quarters. Plunge into cold water, add the celery and carrot cut into brunoise. Bring to the boil, add the black peppercorns and cook for at least 30 minutes over a high flame.

Peel the potatoes, wash them, immerse in boiling water and cook for 25 minutes. Strain the broth and reserve some of the vegetables. Blanch the black cabbage leaves in a separate pan of boiling water for 10 minutes — they will take on a vivid green colour. Immediately plunge into iced water in a stainless-steel bowl and squeeze dry. Then mash the potatoes.

Place the cabbage, potatoes and remaining vegetables in a thermomix; blend everything with 4 ladles of broth and the colatura di alici. Obtain a warm, slightly liquid velvety cream and set aside.

Prepare a breadcrumb coating from Torino-style grissini, ground to a fine powder in a food processor. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Emulsify both with a pinch of salt. First coat the amberjack fillet in egg white, then in the breadcrumb coating, then in the yolk, and finally in the coating again, pressing it onto the fish with your hands in both the first and second applications.

Heat the sunflower oil to 160°C, immerse the breaded amberjack fillet, and cook slowly from the outside — the heat must penetrate the fibres of the fish so it is warm even inside, but still pink, crispy and unburnt on the outside, bearing in mind that Torino grissini have a very low smoke point.

To plate: spoon some black cabbage and potato velvety cream with colatura di alici onto the base of the plate, lay the hot breaded amberjack on top, gently sliced into pieces. Garnish with drops of lemon and colatura, and serve.

Recipe by chef Alfredo Iannaccone of Zen Food Lab, exclusively for Delfino Battista.