How to eat whole trout
Once on a group tour of Sicily, we were at a lovely taverna and each of us got a whole trout for lunch. At the other tables, people just tore into their trouts, mixing the bones with the flesh and ending up unable to eat any of it. Very sad. I was happy that I knew how to eat a whole fish, and showed my tablemates how to cut the skin off the top, eat the top half, and then flip the fish over and eat the bottom half. We all had a lovely lunch.
How to make Trout with Spinach:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. If you want fries with that, start by slicing up four large potatoes into fries. Pour 1/8 cup of olive oil on a baking sheet and use salad tongs to toss the fries in the oil and coat them in oil. Sprinkle salt or spices (thyme? pepper?) on the fries an put them in the oven to bake.
Now put the trout or trouts in a roasting pan with a little olive oil under it to help keep it from sticking. Open up the slit along its side and pour in a little white wine and some chopped fresh dill. Broil or bake for about ten minutes, or until the flesh is opaque rather than transparent (it’s fine for it to be rather pinkish).
While the fries and trout are baking, take out a medium-size frying pan and pour in 1/8 cup of olive oil. Heat the oil over medium heat. When it’s pretty hot, add half a bunch of spinach, maybe a quart, and again use the salad tongs to turn the spinach until it wilts. Add another quart or so of spinach gradually as there gets to be room for it in the pan. When the spinach is all a little wilted, turn off the heat and add the juice of half a lemon. Toss with the salad tongs. By now, the fries and the trout are probably ready; the fries are done when they’re soft all the way through. Serve hot, with more lemon slices to squeeze on the trout.
Will trout and spinach keep?
You can reheat any leftover fries for lunch the next day, but they’ll be soggier. The trout is also good cold for lunch with mayonnaise on a sandwich or just as a cold salad without the bread. Sauteed spinach is best eaten fresh.