Author unknown, provenance uncertain, image very intriguing, the marble bas-relief placed on the bell tower door of Positano's Mother Church represents the symbolic synthesis of the Amalfi Coast territory and its inhabitants.
The image of the so-called "pistrice" is composed of three elements: the head of a fair, the body of a snail, and the tail of a fish. This gives rise to an easy interpretation: the house (i.e. the snail) placed halfway between the forest and the sea, represented by the fair and the fish, respectively.
Immediately below this sort of monster is depicted a fox chasing fish: and here is the inhabitant of this territory, basically tied to the land and the forest, forced to go to sea out of hunger, out of need.
The fisher fox, or the Amalfitan, a sailor of the Ancient Republic, with his trade throughout the Mediterranean but very attached to his own territory, which he never leaves.
We dedicate this dish, typical of the farmer-fisherman of the Amalfi Coast "with one foot in the boat and one in the vineyard," to him. A dish that we might call "elastic" in the sense that the ratio of squid to potatoes can vary depending on the number of guests and/or the quantity of the catch.
A signature dish of our cuisine, all played out between sea and land, with ingredients of rare fragrance and authenticity.