Here I will be writing about trout recipes and generally cooking of fish. I like cooking a lot and I consider myself a learner although I can cook Italian Food quite well (lasagne, pasta col pesto, pasta al ragu, carbonara, home made pizza, rabbit à la moutarde - this a French recipes -, rosmarine roast chicken, risotto alla milanese, tiramisu, focaccia, pan di spagna cake, bignets, etc...).

Most of the times, my son and I release the fish back to the water, but sometimes we take one to eat, especially while camping.

I will start writing about the most simple way to cook a trout, the most "pre-eval" among trout recipes. It's very basic but when it comes to camping and the wheater is wet and slightly rainy and you don't have much time to prepare a real fire for grilling...the fish itself comes to your rescue.

This first recipe we call "Trota al Cartoccio" and you need only four "ingredients":

• A trout
• A pinch of salt
• Aluminium Paper
• A fire (hot red charcoals)

Method:

Clean the fish of the interiors, opening it from the anus to the head and removing all internal parts, including the black line which is stuck along the spine (bitter taste if not removed), clean the trout thoroughly in water (in the stream water like in my case). I wished I had my Wusthof Knife with me but my outdoor knife was ok for this time, too.
Put a little salt inside the trout where you just removed the interiors.

Wrap the trout in a thick aluminium paper or two layers of such paper. This is what is called "al cartoccio", identical the potatoes which everybody knows.

Lay the trout on the hot, red charcoals (not on the direct fire) and let it cook for about 20-30 minutes or vary the time depending on the size of the fish (that means that you can open the "cartoccio" and check it and put it back on the charcoals if necessary).

A wild trout is so tasty that you barely need nothing else to add to appreciate it, as opposite to a trout from a commercial fish culture - despite all different claims, in my opinion -. Try it!

We can build up any other recipe from this very basic dish by adding flavours (herbs and spices, butter, oil and different "heat-mechanisms" which is... what cooking is all about in the end, isn't it?

The only thing to add is a...bottle of white wine if you can. You should cool it down. How? Just leave the bottle for half-an-hour in the cold stream waters near you, as we did!

For more trout recipes jump at the bottom of this page.

Update November 2009: Do you want to know which one is the best book about wines in the world? The book which won the «GOURMAND WORLD WINE BOOK AWARD 2009»?

It is Alberto Dell'Acqua's book "D'vinis": in French, German and Italian.

Alberto is a friend, and lives in Lugano and we usually meet at Church with Diana, his wife.

Here the Italian details:

D’VINIS di Alberto Dell’Acqua, autore ed editore
“Incontri, rencontres, treffen “ pagine 422, illustrazioni 600 e più, di grande formato
Rilegato con controcopertina deluxe, (testi in tre lingue:italiano, francese e tedesco)
Editore GATRONOMIE&TOURISME SA LUGANO
CO-EDITION FAVRE SA, LAUSANNE-PARIS
Costo di copertina CHF 128.- (Euro ottanta)
Per ordini ed informazioni:
info @ gastronomietourisme.ch

And here is Alberto...

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Easy uh! Yeah, but that's only the beginning! Check the other trout recipes below:

From the trout recipes page to the homepage

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(External Link) Here is Jason's link (Jason is a friend I met through the Internet) where he shows more way to cook fish.