The Swordfish Agghiotta, in dialect **“’u piscispata ‘agghiotta”**, is a historic dish of the culinary tradition of the town of Scilla and of Messina, for whose recipe Scilla obtained official inclusion in the List of Traditional Italian Food Products (PAT) compiled by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry.
Scilla and Messina have been closely linked for centuries through swordfish fishing and, inevitably, through gastronomy as well.
Agghiotta represents one of the most authentic expressions of this connection: a simple yet intense recipe, infused with the scent of the sea. Tradition holds that, to obtain the most delicate and authentic version of the dish, it is preferable to use cuts of fish locally known as “scuzzetta e cutigghiuni,” namely the part corresponding to the nape and the section near the tail, which are considered the most suitable because they are fattier and therefore more flavorful. Naturally, the recipe also includes other typical products of this land: cherry tomatoes, preferably small and still on the vine, capers, and green or black olives. Along the Messina coast, the recipe is often enriched with raisins and pine nuts, which make the seasoning sweeter and more delicate. The first step in the preparation is making the sauce that will season the dish. To prepare it properly, the cherry tomatoes must first be cooked: cut in half and placed in a pan with salt and two generous drizzles of extra virgin olive oil, they should be left to soften over low heat, stirred occasionally with a spoon so that they release their juices and form the sauce that will give the swordfish additional flavor. Once cooked, the sauce is set aside and, in the same pan, two more drizzles of oil and finely chopped onions are added and left to soften. At that point, the desalinated capers and pitted olives are added so that they can release part of their flavor, and only after 4–5 minutes is the previously prepared tomato sauce added. The swordfish is then placed in a separate pan, seasoned with salt and extra virgin olive oil—carefully, so that the final result does not become too salty given the presence of capers—and cooked for about 15 minutes over low heat, occasionally basting it with the previously prepared sauce. The combination of flavors from both land and sea that emerges makes this dish a true emblem of Scilla’s cuisine, a recipe capable of evoking the historical, geographical, and cultural context from which it originates.
It is no coincidence that the most famous gastronome of antiquity, Archestratus of Gela, who lived in the 4th century B.C. and is considered the first food critic in history, mentions both this fish and this place. In his hexameter poem Hedypatheia (“The Life of Luxury”), composed around 330 B.C. and preserved in 56 fragments arranged by Athenaeus, Archestratus celebrates the gastronomic excellences encountered during his travels throughout the Mediterranean, indicating precisely the finest foods and the places where they could be found: his work is therefore considered the first gastronomic guide in history. In one passage of the poem, Archestratus mentions swordfish in relation to Scilla and Cape Peloro. He specifically recommends obtaining a slice of swordfish in the Strait, from Scilla toward the far reaches of Cape Peloro (today the northern entrance to the Strait of Messina), indicating it as an area renowned for the quality of its catch.

“Arriving in Byzantium, take a piece
Of swordfish, and let it be from that flesh
Which clothes the joint of the tail.
This fish, so flavorful, is also caught
In the Strait, from Scilla toward the end of Pelorus.”

The mention of Scilla is not accidental. For millennia, Scilla has been a renowned center for swordfish hunting, a practice still carried out today using traditional methods rooted in history and myth. Archestratus thus unites mythological geography and gastronomic knowledge, indicating with precision the exact place where the finest raw material can be found.

Giuseppe Ribuffo