Fish heads and tails

Yes I know I was about to write about tuna and it is coming. Soon. Very soon.

A fish head the other day made me wonder how many fish heads and tails are thrown away every day in the world. It is such a waste of great food.  In most fish, the end parts, head and tail have most flavors. The gelatinous texture of the head meat makes it particularly interesting. The tail has the opposite texture, but it often full with flavor.

The other day I got this fantastic dentex. It was fished by my favorite fisherman Joker, who goes far out to where the Mediterranean Sea is deep. Those reading this who know their fish might protest that the fish on the picture is not really a dentex and it is correct that it is not.

Though it is often called dentex, it is not quite that. I actually think it is better than dentex. Its English name is blue-spotted sea bream but in Italy it goes under many names one of the being dentice rosa. The French too have several names for this fish but the most correct would be Pagre à points bleus. It sort of looks like a cross between a sea bream and a dentex. Like the dentex it lives on hard rocky bottoms and feeds on mainly bivalves and crustaceans. I think its preference for bivalves plays a part in its fantastic taste. Its texture is firm. The larger specimens like this 5,5 kilo beast are usually found in deeper waters and are usually the best. The picture above is taken the day after it was landed. This is what it looked like when it came ashore.

When I got it, it had stopped breathing so to speak but it was too fresh to eat. Contrary to popular belief, all fish is not better the fresher it is.  This fish, like most of the species closely related to it, benefits from a few days of rest in a cool fridge, which is to say at a temperature of -1 to 0C degrees. Most important is that the fish is never put on direct contact with ice and that it is left to cool slowly in the fridge and kept there until you eat it. Ice ruins the texture of most fish. A fish handled this way will have superior gustative qualities and unparalleled texture. Admittedly, I know of extremely few restaurants in Europe that serve wild fish impeccably handled like this.

Generally speaking, I use the head on a large fish before the rest of the fish. I think the head deteriorates more quickly. The head can be eaten the day after it was fished but the back of the fish ideally needs two-three days of rest.

Cooking fish of this quality is a treat. I put the head in some cooking juices I had left from simmering some parts from a tuna head and let it simmer until it was done, turning it a few times. This way the temperature evens out nicely.

Someone might object that it looks overcooked but it is not. The head will look a bit like this when the collagen in the fish has been broken down. The meat will be juicy and tender.

Here are the cheeks and part of the so called torpedo ( upper part on top of the head) served with vongole or carpet shell clams. The sauce is simply made with some of the liquid from the clams, some of the head cooking juices  and parsley. The sauce is thickened with mashed potatoes. 2/3 of the clams were opened and separated from their juices then simply heated in the sauce. 1/3 of the clams were cooked the traditional way in their shells with a dash of wine and a quarter of a sweet onion. This creates two different types of clam texture and flavor.

Can it be simpler than this?