Adelfio

In 1931 a young Palermo man, Gaetano Adelfio, came to the fishing village of Marzamemi for the mattanza, the ritual bluefin hunt of one of Sicily's great tonnare, and stayed to cure the catch. Three generations on, his grandson of the same name runs the family workshop beside the old Villadorata tonnara, boiling the fresh Mediterranean fish in salted water and hand-packing it in olive oil. Adelfio works the whole tuna, from ventresca and bottarga to the dark, bloody buzzonaglia the Pachino grape-pickers once ate with bread.