THE Ancient Romans and Chinese were masters of the art of sweet-and-sour cookery, remnants of which appear on menus and in cookbooks today.

If you come across something “in agrodolce” (Italian) or aigre-doux (French), it is likely to have been sweetened with honey or sugar and soured with vinegar, tamarind or lemon juice.

Game meats and venison are often served in agrodolce, and courgettes, onions and aubergines lend themselves beautifully to the sweet-and-sour treatment, especially in southern Italian recipes. Throughout Nordic countries, herrings are cured and cabbage is cooked with vinegar and sugar.

As for modern Britain, you have only to think of the chutneys, pickled beetroots, pickled eggs and pickled onions that add a sharp-sweet note to otherwise bland meats and cheeses to realise that sweet-and-sour cookery is alive and well. Tomato ketchup, made with malt vinegar, spices, tomatoes, onions, apples, sugar, salt and pepper, is both sweet and sharp, a balance that keeps us coming back for more; mint sauce, too; even marmalade is a balance of sugar with the natural bitterness of citrus fruits.

Some recipes call for an actual agrodolce sauce, made by reducing wine vinegar and sugar and a few aromatics such a bay leaves, garlic, onion and herbs. Others, such as this, require only a dash of vinegar and a touch of sugar to tease the tastebuds.



Prep: 20min
Cook: 15min
Serves 4

Serve with boiled samphire or steamed broccoli

4 hake fillets, skin-on
1tbsp flour sea salt and pepper
1tbsp olive oil
Agrodolce sauce:
1tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 anchovy fillets, mashed
2 ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1tbsp tomato puree or passata
2tbsp sultanas
1tsp diced candied peel or mostarda di frutta
1tbsp caster sugar
100ml hot water or stock
1tbsp red wine vinegar, or more
2tbsp pine nuts, toasted







METHOD: For the sauce, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic for 1 min until golden. Add the anchovies, tomatoes and tomato purée and cook for 3 minutes. Add the sultanas, candied peel or mostarda, caster sugar and hot water or stock; simmer for 5 min.

Lightly coat the fish in seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a frying pan and sear the fish, skin-side down, until almost cooked. Turn and “kiss” the other side quickly, to finish the cooking. Add the vinegar to the sauce, taste and adjust. Slip the fish into the sauce and simmer for 3 min. Serve the fish with the sauce, and scatter with pine nuts.

jill.dupleix@thetimes.co.uk

TIMESONLINE www.timesonline.co.uk/foodandwine — for previous recipes from T2

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