14 Classic Italian Fish Dishes That Will Transport Your Taste Buds

Italian cuisine is known for its pasta and pizza, in their practically infinite variations. But less attention is paid to other elements of the Italian diet, such as fish (unless it happens to come with pasta). That is a crying shame, especially for those parts of Italy that thrive on a long-standing fishing tradition, where you can get some of the freshest fish you've ever tasted. After all, Italy has about 5,000 miles of coastline, and — as a peninsula and former great maritime power — it's only natural to assume that fish has played a big part in the history of the cuisine.

And we're not talking about off-the-beaten-track destinations only in-the-know locals frequent, but big cities, even major tourist destinations like Venice, Naples, and Genoa. Fish has long played an important role in these cuisines, with or without pasta at its side, and it's high time we give it its moment in the spotlight. To that end, we've put together a list of some of the most important fish-based dishes in Italian cooking, which I've backed up with my own experience of living in Italy and partaking in the rich tradition of cooking fish, especially in Venice.

You may know this fish stew as Cioppino, but since we're talking about fish dishes that originated in Italy, we can't very well include it under this name. That's because technically, Cioppino was invented in San Francisco by Italian immigrants from the region of Liguria, which has a longstanding tradition of making ciupin, which sounds suspiciously similar, and indeed, is practically the same thing. The name ciupin comes from the Ligurian dialect word for "chopping" because many of the fish and other ingredients in this stew are chopped up.

Both cioppino and ciupin were traditionally served as humble dishes, wherein chefs used cheap ingredients, meaning fish from the nearby shores of Liguria or San Francisco, to create a tasty dish with a tomato and garlicky base. Both are best served with toasted bread for a complete and filling meal. In the Italian version, focaccia is often favored, especially if rubbed with some garlic beforehand. 

Another Italian fish staple that can also be found outside the country in various forms is fritto misto, which essentially means "mixed fried food." Anyone who has lived in Italy and seen this on the menu automatically knows that the fried food in question is fish, unless otherwise specified. Specifically, a typical fritto misto comprises of squid rings, prawns, anchovies, and maybe some vegetables thrown in.

They come in a batter made with rice flour, or semolina, and white wine, and are typically served with a few lemon wedges. This dish is so popular throughout Italy that you are likely to find it at most seaside restaurants, and it hardly ever disappoints. You can even get it at market stalls, where they might scoop it into a newspaper funnel so you can walk around while popping the fried fish into your mouth with little wooden spoons. It's also a great dish because it's not too hard to make at home, as long as you have good quality fish and plan on eating the dish right away — this is not one of those meals that gets better over time.

This dish is more of a meat dish -– vitello is Italian for veal — but without its signature tuna sauce, it would just be another boring slab of meat. The sauce is made by mixing canned tuna (strictly in extra virgin olive oil, no water or brine nonsense) with egg yolk, capers, anchovies, lemon juice, and broth to form an umami-packed concoction that resembles mayonnaise but is much tastier and frankly, more highbrow.

This sauce is then deployed strategically on top of thinly sliced veal and served cold, topped with capers of various sized. Vitello tonnato originates from the Piedmont region of Italy and is most commonly consumed as a starter. If you're making it yourself and have some sauce leftover after spreading it over your meat, feel free to stick some in a sandwich or use it as a dipping sauce for some fine Italian focaccia or crudité. Indeed, it can be a great condiment in its own right.

Even though Vicenza, a city in the northern Veneto region, is nowhere near the sea, it proudly boasts a great fish dish known as baccalà alla vicentina. But perhaps that's quite alright, since the fish in question is not meant to be eaten after being plucked fresh from the Mediterranean waters. In fact, baccalà is dried salted cod, as salt was historically used to preserve fish for transport to inland regions or for general longevity.

You will find out just how preserved this fish can be if you decide to try your hand at this recipe. In fact, make sure you start the venture several days beforehand, as the preserved cod is so hard, you will have to soak it in water for a few hours, maybe even days, before you can even think about cooking it. Once that part is done, combine the fish with some fried onions and anchovies and serve it with a big dollop of polenta, another staple of the Veneto region.

While the baccalà used in baccalà all vicentina can be hard as rock, baccalà mantecato is the total opposite. Indeed, mantecato means creamy, and this type of fish is, in fact, creamy and soft and ready to be spread over bread, toasted polenta, or anything you wish. This one is also from the Veneto region, but originated further east, in Venice.

The start of this recipe might sound a lot like baccalà alla vicentina, but it soon veers off into something quite different. After soaking the salted cod in water and cooking it in milk, you will have to blitz it into a food processor with some olive oil until it becomes creamy. This makes a great appetizer for any meal, or it can be set out as an hors d'oeuvre along with olives and a charcuterie board. Just serve it in a bowl and top it with some chopped parsley for color.

If you want to impress dinner guests with a dish that looks hard but is actually quite easy, not to mention delicious, go for the salt-crusted whole branzino. First of all, even just the word branzino evokes a lofty affair. But most of all, when you pull the fish out of the oven and start cracking at that salt crust to find a moist, perfectly salted fish underneath, your reputation as a star home chef will be forever solidified.

The best part is that it's easy to make, as long as you buy fish that is truly whole — you can have your fishmonger clean it out, but make sure it has not been descaled, or all that salt crust will end up seeping into the fish and create an overwhelmingly salty taste. At its most basic, the recipe simply consists of mixing whipped egg whites with coarse salt and then fully covering the fish with the mixture. But you can also play around with it and add spices, herbs, or an agrumi sauce to the salt-crusted branzino.

At first glance, it might not look like there is any fish in this Neapolitan dish. But because the anchovies play such a decisive role in its flavor, we can't very well leave it off the list of fish dishes that will transport your taste buds. Even though the anchovies become dissolved in the sauce early on and are nowhere to be seen, without them, this pasta meal would be little more than your typical pasta with tomato sauce and a few olives thrown in as an afterthought.

In fact, as this recipe suggests, you might even want to improve your puttanesca sauce by doubling the anchovies. Just be sure to avoid adding too much extra salt. It's also a good idea to educate yourself about what kind of anchovies you're working with. If you buy oil-packed anchovies, you can confidently pour these directly into your pan and start cooking. If you buy the salt-cured variety, you may want to rinse them a bit before cooking them to avoid going overboard on the salt factor.

Linguine or spaghetti alle vongole, which means with clams, is ubiquitous on menus at seaside restaurants across the land. While Naples is often credited with its invention, Venice, on the other side of the country, also serves it up in great quantities. The trick is to have loads of fresh clams on hand, plenty of pasta, and a good dose of parsley.

In other words, if you haven't tried this dish at a coastal restaurant in Italy yet, it's time to get on that. If you'll be sticking to Rome, Florence, and Milan, you can go ahead and skip it. But if you're going to be in Venice, Naples, or Sicily, it's pretty much a requirement. And don't be concerned if the dish comes with the shells still on the clams. Prying out the mollusk from its abode is part of the fun.

Octopus, commonly known as polpo in Italy, seems to have a natural compatibility for boiled potatoes. Indeed, Italy's octopus and potato salad, which is commonly found in northern regions like Liguria and Tuscany, is a delightful side dish or antipasto, especially when you order it at a restaurant and don't have to cook it yourself. Cleaning an octopus, which involves removing such things as its eyes and innards, takes a lot of time and a strong stomach, while cooking it can be tricky for the inexperienced –-octopus has a tendency to turn rubbery with little or no notice.

Instead, if you see it on a menu, snatch it up immediately. You will likely be greeted with a beautiful and tasty combination of purple octopus tentacles with pale yellow boiled potatoes tossed in good olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and white wine. Pair it with more white wine, for good measure.

Insalata di mare literally means sea salad and refers not to a salad made with saltwater, but to a dish made exclusively with shellfish, seasoning, and aromatics. In fact, don't expect this meal to count toward your daily vegetable intake, as there are no greens in sight, except maybe for some chopped parsley.

The preparation of this dish is both simple and laborious. Simple because it just involves cooking the fishes and then mixing them together. Laborious because you have to cook each type of fish individually, in the way that suits it best, so if you use mussels, octopus, squid, clams, and shrimp, not to mention the aromatics that still need to be chopped up and sautéed, you're looking at quite a long to-do list. The good news is that it's all worth it, not just because of the dish, but because you can also then use the broth created in the cooking process as the base for your next shrimp risotto.

Swordfish can be made in a myriad of different ways, but there is only one type of Sicilian swordfish, and that comes with olives, garlic, cherry tomatoes, and pine nuts. Put together, these elements create a sort of sauce that helps to moisten a fish that tends to become dry and flavorless when cooked. This same sauce can even be used on meats, such as chicken, to great effect.

It must be noted that swordfish plays an important role in Sicilian lore. People have been fishing it there for centuries, especially in the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and Calabria, and it's an important part of the culture. Not only that, but the legends surrounding swordfish go back to Greek mythology, according to which the swordfish in those waters are not truly fish, but allies of Achilles who threw themselves into the sea to protest his death and were subsequently given swords to honor their valor.

This dish is known as sarde in saor in its hometown of Venice, where it's frequently served as a cicchetto, a small, shareable plate reminiscent of Spanish tapas. As with many Italian dishes, even fishy ones, the process to make sweet and sour sardines is simple: Just dip them in some flour, fry them in oil, and marinate them in onions, raisins, and vinegar — the latter two ingredients provide the sweet and sour elements.

You will also not have any trouble finding this dish while wandering around Venetian eateries. Despite being right on the water and having reliable access to fresh fish year-round, Venice invented sarde in saor as a way to preserve fish during long seafaring voyages, as Venice was also a major naval power in its heyday. As it happens, sarde in saor may taste even better a day or two after being initially prepared, which was lucky for Venetian sailors of old.

Cacciucco may be similar to ciupin, or cioppino, in flavor and geography, but it merits its own section. While they both use a tomato base, ciupin employs white wine and limited seasoning and was invented in the region of Liguria, or San Francisco, if we're talking about cioppino. Meanwhile, cacciucco was invented in Tuscany under similar pretenses -– the need to use up cheap fish no one wanted -– but uses red wine and plenty of spices, like fennel seeds, chili flakes, and sage.

Both types of fish stew encourage the use of toasted bread as a side, but cacciucco in particular allows for the substitution of fish ingredients to adapt to what's available. For example, while it typically calls for squid and octopus, you can use whatever combination of fish you might find on sale at the fish counter. Just make sure you choose many different types of fish to give the stew more depth of flavor. The more varieties, the merrier.

Risotto is one of those dishes that can be made with practically anything. Once you get the basic formula down, which is not necessarily easy, you can add whatever ingredients you like, including truffles, shrimp, artichoke, squid, and so on. All options are sure to provide a full and satisfying meal.

Let's take fish risotto in particular, which in Italian is often called risotto alla pescatora, meaning fisherman's risotto. Various parts of Italy will make their own version of the dish, most likely by choosing local fish that is in season, with a focus on shellfish such as shrimp or clams. The common denominator, though, will always be the base of carnaroli or arborio rice cooked with white wine, aromatics, and broth, with a touch of butter at the end. This risotto is also an opportunity to do away with Italy's dogmatic views on combining fish with cheese, which is typically considered a no-no. With risotto alla pescatora, it's more than okay to grate some fresh parmesan on top. The risotto demands it.