For centuries it has been the distinctive element of the Christmas Eve dinner of the inhabitants of Cetara.

In poverty times, it was the alternative to the lack of clams and sea food, a particularly renowned condiment today, and produced in small quantities according to a recipe handed down from generation to generation since the Middle-Ages, when hit was elaborated by the monks of San Pietro a Tuczolo, who in summer time fished anchovies. The recipe was transferred to a written form in 1807. The direct successor of the omnipresent sauce in ancient Romans cuisine is the garum. All this is the “colatura” of anchovies from Cetara, the precious amber-coloured liquid which takes almost a year of work, before being ready to use in kitchen.

We start from spring, because at the origin of this, there are the majatiche anchovies, which are caught between the 25th of March, feast of the Annunziata, and the 22nd of July, Saint Maria Maddalena day. Freshly caught, anchovies are deprived of the heads and the entrails and arranged in layers in a container, where they are covered in sea salt for 24 hours. Right after, they are transferred to a small barrel, called "terziano", in which they alternate with layers of salt. The small barrel is covered with a wooden disc on which different weights are arranged, gradually lighter over time. The liquid secreted by the anchovies in brine is slowly on the surface and gradually recovered and put in transparent glass bottles, which from that moment are exposed to direct sunlight for four or five months. After that period, the liquid returns to the terzigno for the final phase. Draining between the layers of fishes, once again, it takes the scent, the flavour and the substance, to then, through a whole, be collected and filtered with special linen sheets called cappuccino. The liquid collected at the end of the long process in December is of an intense color and is bottled putting a sprig of oregano, before closing the cap. This way, the “colatura” of anchovies from Cetara is ready to be combined with spaghetti or linguine in the easiest and most characteristic recipe. But the colatura can also be combined with other types of pasta and vegetables, such as Broccoli.