What are whitebait?
Whitebait (dialectally known as gianchetti, neonata, cento bocconi, nuccu, etc.) are tiny transparent or milk-colored fish.
Caught and used for food purposes, whitebait is biologically considered juvenile fish (fry); It is therefore NOT a question of fish that remain small in size.
"Bianchetto" is NOT even synonymous with "lattarino" (acquadella); this creature, which remains very small even in adult form, however, becomes 5-6 times larger than the whitebait.
The fish species that make up the whitebait have the characteristic of spending the entire neonatal phase on the coastal coast, where they remain organized in very dense schools until the end of the development necessary to undertake the journey to the open sea.
The composition of whitebait is usually mainly based on blue fish, such as anchovies and sardines; less frequently, although this depends a lot on the area in question, different species are included, such as lattarini, paganelli and sandeel (more abundant in the upper Adriatic Sea, especially in the valleys and lagoons).
"Bianchetto" is often used as a synonym for "lipstick"; in truth, the latter is properly constituted by the species Aphia minuta and takes on a pinkish color.
For reasons of sustainability, whitebait fishing is (fortunately) currently strictly prohibited.
The whitebait has a pale, milky color, and the tiny black dots of the eyes are barely distinguishable. They are marketed in agglomerated form, as if they were a single food; in reality, in the standard portion of raw whitebait (about 100-150 g) there are about one hundred or two hundred specimens.
