Colatura di Alici
Colatura from Cetara — the direct descendant of Roman garum. Added raw at the end. The anchovy does all the work.
Colatura di alici is the fermented anchovy essence of Cetara, a fishing village on the Amalfi Coast. It is the direct descendant of garum, the ancient Roman fish sauce that powered the empire's kitchens. Unlike other anchovy preparations, colatura is not cooked — it is extracted through months of layering anchovies in sea salt and letting gravity do the work. The resulting liquid is golden, pungent, and irreplaceable. The sauce you make with it is barely a sauce at all: colatura, olive oil, garlic, and parsley, assembled in the time it takes to boil pasta.
Only a few ingredients
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The good stuff. Just enough to coat the bottom — warm the bowl first, not the oil. The heat of the pasta will open it up.
Garlic
Sliced paper-thin. Into the warm oil — no heat, no sizzle. The warmth of the bowl and the pasta will be enough to take the edge off.
Colatura di Alici
Two tablespoons per person. This is a finishing ingredient, not a cooking ingredient — it goes in raw, straight into the bowl. Do not heat it.
Chili Pepper
Dried, crumbled. It floats on the surface — that is where it belongs.
Parsley
Flat-leaf, chopped fine. Generous. Tossed through just before serving.
Colatura is not a substitute for anchovy fillets.
Anchovy fillets and colatura serve different purposes. A fillet melts into hot oil to build a base; colatura is added at the end as a finishing ingredient, like a good salt or a fine vinegar. They are not interchangeable, and substituting one for the other will not produce the same result.
Spaghetti
The standard choice. Clean, thin, and unobtrusive.
Linguine
Slightly flatter — picks up more colatura per strand.
Ready to cook?
These sources we trust. Each one makes it correctly.
Other sauces from the same region
Marinara
A Neapolitan sauce with no pretensions. Tomato, garlic, oil, basil, oregano — done in the time it takes to boil the pasta. Simplicity is not the same as easy.
Alle Vongole
The sea served on pasta. Clams, white wine, garlic, parsley — nothing added, nothing covered up.
Puttanesca
A bold, pungent sauce of Neapolitan street food. Built on tomatoes, olives, capers, and anchovies — complex, salty, assertive, and unapologetic.
La Genovese
A Neapolitan ragù built on time and onions. The beef is there, but the onions are the sauce — slow-cooked until they collapse entirely into something sweet, dark, and unlike anything else in Campania.
Alla Carrettiera
Garlic, chili, parsley, and oil — with cherry tomatoes to distinguish it from aglio e olio. A cart-driver's sauce from Campania, designed to be made on the road.
Al Limone
Butter, lemon, and Parmigiano. From the Amalfi Coast, where the lemons are so fragrant they define the landscape. Three ingredients, and every one of them must be excellent.