Fillets of pike (or zander) poached then coated with a short sauce of butter, verjus, and ginger, thickened with a little breadcrumb. A Lenten or meatless day dish, sober and luminous, where the acidity of the verjus awakens the delicate flesh of the fish.

Why this dish? Du Bellay is a child of Liré, on the banks of the Loire: river fish is the food of his native Anjou, the one he will be nostalgic for in Rome when he sings 'my Gallic Loire' which he prefers 'to the Latin Tiber'. Pike, king of fresh waters, enhanced with a verjus of green grapes, is an everyday dish for those living near the river, simple and frank like the 'Angevin sweetness' he misses.

Alas! why am I not still on the banks of my Loire, where the pike is taken in the weir at daybreak. See: one lays it in the trembling water, not too long, lest it fall apart, then bathes it with a verjus from our green vines, a pinch of ginger, and a good lump of melted butter. Believe me, this tart sweetness tastes better to my mouth than all the stews of the Palatine; a single bite, and I am brought back under my little Liré.

How it was made : On meatless days (Lent, Fridays), when meat was forbidden, river fish was central in 16th-century France. Verjus replaced the rare lemon north of the Loire, and breadcrumbs thickened sauces before the use of butter roux, which only became common in the following century.

The contemporary twist : Serve the fillet on a fine slate tile — a nod to the Anjou slate the poet cherished 'more than hard marble' — with a fine dusting of candied grape zest.

Sources : Le Viandier (Taillevent), fish recipes with verjus · Le Ménagier de Paris (c. 1393), meatless sauces

Joachim du Bellay · Charactorium