Sit down to dinner in a Roman restaurant, knife and fork in hand, ready to mangia bene...and what do you usually think of eating? Probably a pastoral dish of abbacchio, baby lamb, or that famous gratis payment to butchers, the “fifth quarter” of the animal, its innards. Or perhaps a vegetarian meal of tender fried artichokes and rice suppli stuffed with runny mozzarella di bufala, or stewed greens with beans, or pancetta, egg and cheese sauces enhancing fettucine. Seafood often seems secondary, served as part of an antipasto platter or as a simple main dish eaten al fresco during the heat of summer.

Ancient Romans were always quite fond of accenting their meat with fermented anchovy-based sauces. This prevails today, substituting a paste of salted anchovies whether in crisp salad, or stew. Emanating from religious observance for centuries, dishes based on the daily markets’ offerings usually meant arzilla or skate, merluzzo or cod and boiled baccala in soup or with a simple sauce. Today, whether or not the temperature is rising, modern land-bound Romans tire of the usual fare and yearn for the sea. So, it’s time to go to the fish market and inspect what’s freshest.

There are several outdoor markets selling fish in Rome, and among the best are the stands at Campo dei Fiori and Testaccio. The displays are enticing with truly glistening fish from the Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas carefully displayed on beds of crisp romaine with bright oranges and lemons cut into stars for accent. Consistently fresh with a briny aroma, most fish and shellfish is prepared in advance for the cook. They’re lucky because the mix of seafood is pre-selected and already cleaned. Purchase by the “mezz-chilo o chilo” and simply put it in the soup pot to make a delicious fish stew.

Fish dishes abound with just a little searching in some trattorias, and they are very, very good indeed. Mounds of golden fried squid and fingerling fish, and filets sautéed with seasonal vegetables or napped with a savory tomato sauce are popular. But something unusual is happening to those normally languid Romans - they’re tiring of the norm. In Trastevere no less, Rome’s sacred quarter (if you can’t trace your Roman ancestral roots back generations to Trastevere, forget it), who would dare serve raw fish to Italians and call it dinner? Only Alberto Ciarla, the Nettuno di Roma, who serves it as cool seviche tossed with warm spaghetti. So, whether you’re in Rome or not, do as the Romans do, and have fish for dinner!