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Cripes! → on LIPARI ISLAND
swordfish with a pine nut, currant, anchovy sauce
Paige Lipari
June 16, 2026
WHAT IS INSIDE THIS LETTER?
another FISH SAUCE recipe the latest a curated book list for juneteenth | an italian cookbook for kids with fried egg spaghetti recipe |
T H E
L A T E S T
No. 1 → | No. 2 → |
No. 3 →  | No. 4 →  |
No. 5 → | No. 6 → |
a lemon zest
method video
is coming soon
M A Y
I
SUGGEST
TRYING
One of my closest friends, Giuliana Rizzo, has written one of the best books on cooking for kids that has ever come across my desk. I feel compelled to shout it from all the rooftops on LIPARI ISLAND! Her passion, backed by a fierce intelligence, is infectious. Brilliantly framing the book from the beginning, she observes Italian cuisine possesses these seven inherent virtues: Italian food is FUN, HEALTHY, SIMPLE, BUILDABLE, STRUCTURED, CELEBRATORY, and CONNECTED.
“Italian cuisine reveals itself in many ways—structured and playful, but always meaningful. It unites Italians from all walks of life and connects generations, starting with simple but cherished traditions like teaching children scarpetta (using bread to wipe clean the sauce from their plates).”
The voice coming off the page is so strong: I can hear Giuliana’s enthusiasm, declaring, Wait, it turns out I am a total expert and know exactly how I can help you! Let me be your guide! I must write this book!
SI, Rizzo is perfectly positioned to steer us: She is Italian, grew up in the Venice area, and has been in America for twenty years, raising two young boys here with her husband in DC. Her husband and whole social circle have moved through the DIY Punk scene for decades, and this self-published endeavor carries that spirit forward: she clearly made the book she herself would want to read, without compromise.
On top of that, the book design is clean and user-friendly, has a 1950’s vintage feel, and the utterly charming and instructive illustrations throughout the book are from a fellow Italian, Francesca Springolo. “It’s a very Italian project!” I honestly can’t recommend it enough, and I’m filled with joy to pass it on to you.
She just posted a recipe on her Substack: Spaghetti with a Fried Egg. If you have not eaten pasta this way, it’s a personal favorite. I love to eat this for breakfast after a wild night and need some comfort. Of course, and I know G agrees, use high-quality pasta from Italy, as it tastes and digests completely differently. ENJOY and GET THE BOOK HERE!
another
F I S H
S A U C E
recipe!
this
time
for
S W O R D F I S H
no filter, yum
Some of my earliest memories are of swordfish, but it may not be the romantic notion you are thinking of. The ones I am thinking of are of my Uncle Doug (from the non-Lipari side), who seemed to live in the den of my Aunt and Uncle’s house, always sitting in his comfy recliner. The small room was hugged by wood paneling, giving it an old cabin feel in the middle of a formica-laden duplex in East Meadow (Long Island). We would usually find him playing the latest video game, then, as the 90s rolled on, watching Fox News.
Uncle Doug was a scary guy to a little girl: he had a faded tattoo of a tarantula on his upper arm from his Greaser days, chain-smoked Marlboro Reds, and apparently harpooned this ginormous swordfish at some point in his life and hung it as the centerpiece of this room. The fish was spectacular, drawn with glitter markers they didn’t sell at CVS and with a two-foot fairytale swordnose piercing our skins just by looking at it. Why wasn’t everyone constantly talking about the swordfish in the room? I wondered.
My Nonna never made swordfish. I probably didn’t try it until my late teens, maybe even for the first time in Sicily, but Sicily is well-known for its swordfish, with some of the best in the world coming through the Strait of Messina. The Greek, Arab, and Spanish conquerors each had different ways of preparing it, but everyone loved it for its heartiness and versatility. Swordfish can be grilled, roasted, made into meatballs, put into savory fish pie, rolled up like spattini, skewered with vegetables on the barbecue, layered in parmagiana, served raw as carpaccio, and more.
I love to bake it almost confit for a much more forgiving cooking experience. Being in Brooklyn, it’s rare to be able to cook with yummy fire. I find this oven method to be the most practical.
I have no idea when I started developing this recipe, but it comes from research, an obsession with Sicilian food, and reading cookbooks, rather than from my family. The style is very traditional. You will see variations of it, especially throughout the Arab-influenced region where my family lives, Trapani. (Fun fact: Their town, Alcamo, was under Islamic rule and derives its name from the Arabic Al-Qamah.) Anyways, it’s a pine-nut sauce, usually with currants and anchovies. Sometimes the pine nuts are left whole, and sometimes you see them ground into a paste.
 We would sell cooked swordfish sourced from Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. in the OLIVA fridge to take-away! Big beau fennel fronds! |  With parsley here. Add a sprinkle of crushed fennel seeds or pollen to get that fennel flavor instead. Crushed coriander seeds make for another excellent variation. |
There were a few people who really looked forward to seeing this in the OLIVA take-away fridge, but it never fully took-off!
from her prepared foods moment
And here is an image of the Archie community post-making this Swordfish dish from start to finish in one of our Sicily Through the Seasons classes. Swordfish always feels risky for some reason, but it came out delicious, and people took every morsel home, which warmed my sick Sicilian heart.
a cooking class back in october of 2022 where we made this swordfish dish…
another way to eat this dish:
This dish can also be turned into a pasta sauce: simply break down or mash the baked swordfish and its lemony oil along with the pine nut currant sauce and add it to cooked spaghetti or linguini. Eat with lots of crispy breadcrumbs on top.
You can also spoon this mixture over bread, couscous, polenta, or roasted eggplant. Stuff it into a pepper or an onion and bake it until crispy. Mix it into a batter of 00 flour and water, and fry them off like fritters.
Swordfish is also completely delicious with Amogghio, whose recipe can be found in this previous newsletter. At some point, I made a swordfish pie for one of the Blue Plate Dinners. I will try to find my recipe for that and share it before summer is out…
Thank you to my subscribers (you mean the world to me), and I will see you in July for the ARANCINE primer!
R E C I P E S
for
Pine Nut Currant Sauce + Baked Swordfish
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Swordfish
BY ANDREW HUDGINS
My fingertips marveled at the silvery shimmer,
already less silver, less shimmery than when it lived.
I never again should cause flesh this beautiful
to be less beautiful, I thought.
At supper
—swordfish—my brother offered up his neighbor
for conversation. He'd shotgunned every TV
in his house, even the puny black-and-white
on the kitchen counter. Buckshot shattered black
granite and splintered yards of Golden Oak.
It wasn't election time or football season.
Maybe his kids had watched Debbie do Dallas.
In the unexpected hush as we considered
slaughtered appliances, my brother's drinking buddy
told my girlfriend she was a pretty lady,
a real pretty lady. She looked like a dream.
One day she'd make a real man really happy.
I barked three hard flat laughs. The lit friend winced
as each blast turned his cheeks a richer red.
My girlfriend closed her eyes and opened them,
her azure eyelids shimmering with jade.
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