Corfu Fried Fish in Vinegar and Rosemary (Savoro)

Savoro is the Ionian answer to a problem every island kitchen once had: how to keep a good catch edible in August without ice. Fish is fried first, then a fierce hot marinade of red wine vinegar, garlic and rosemary is poured straight over it, and the acid does the keeping.

The name comes from the Venetian saor, and four centuries of Venetian rule are the reason Corfu, Lefkada and the rest of the Ionian cook with vinegar, garlic and currants in a way the rest of Greece does not. The currants are not a decoration, they are the sweetness that stops the vinegar dominating.

It is meant to be eaten cold and it improves for a day or two in the fridge, which makes it one of the few Greek fish dishes you can genuinely make ahead. Corfiot cooks make it with small fish such as picarel or sardines, or with thick steaks of scorpion fish when the boat has had a good day.

Key preparation steps

1. Flour and fry the fish in olive oil until crisp.
2. Fry garlic and rosemary in the same oil.
3. Add vinegar and currants and boil hard for a minute.
4. Pour the hot marinade over the fish and leave to cool.

Which fish works best for savoro?

Small oily fish take to savoro best, because their flesh is firm enough to survive frying and then sitting in vinegar without collapsing. Picarel, sardines, small red mullet and horse mackerel are all traditional. Thick steaks of a firmer white fish such as scorpion fish, hake or even cod also work well, and they hold their shape better if you plan to keep the dish for two or three days.

Whatever you use, dry the fish thoroughly before flouring it. Wet fish steams rather than fries, and the crust is what stops the fillets falling apart once the vinegar hits them.

Why is the marinade poured over hot?

The vinegar is boiled hard for a minute in the same oil the fish was fried in, then poured over while it is still spitting. Hot marinade penetrates the fish immediately and drives the rosemary and garlic right through it, where a cold dressing would only ever sit on the surface.

Boiling also takes the raw edge off the vinegar. A minute at a full boil turns it from harsh to round, and it is the difference between a dish that tastes preserved and one that tastes merely sour.

What do the currants do?

Currants are the Venetian fingerprint on this dish. They swell in the hot vinegar, release sugar into the marinade and balance the acid so the whole thing tastes savoury and sweet at once rather than sharp.

Leave them out and savoro becomes a plain vinegar pickle. Corfiot cooks who have run out sometimes use a spoonful of petimezi or honey instead, which does the same job less elegantly.

How long should savoro rest before eating?

Give it at least four hours at room temperature, and it is genuinely better the next day. The fish needs time to draw the marinade in, and the crust needs time to soften into it.

Serve it cold or barely cool, never warmed through, with bread to mop the dish and a glass of something white and sharp. It keeps three or four days covered in the fridge, and the flavour deepens the whole time.

What matters in this dish