1. Clean and wash the smelt, dry them, roll them in white flour and fry in hot oil, salting them when they are ready.
2. Put the fried smelts in a bowl with boiling vinegar and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
3. Add a few cloves of garlic and herbs, then press them lightly with the weight of a flat plate.
4. Let them marinate for six hours before serving. They can keep for several days.  

Tip: small smelts of about 2 to 3 cm in length are known in Siracusa and Catania as "muccu" and are cooked like this: put them in a colander and rinse under running water, mix with chopped parsley and garlic and make round flat pancakes of about 5 cm. in diameter; flour and fry.

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