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CACIUCCO
(FISH SOUP) TO THE LIVORNESE
Serves
6 people:
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Scorpion fish, tub-fish, small smooth hounds, morays, conger
eels, mantis prawn, weevers, small cuttlefish or octopus |
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Chopped garlic
(plenty) |
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Hot red chilli peppers 1 or 2
(large) |
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Chopped
tomatoes, peeled or preserved |
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Salt |
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½ glass of wine
(usually red) |
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Toasted slices of bread rubbed with
garlic. |
| Recipe
no.1 |
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For this original recipe - popular with fishermen - cheaper types of fish were
used, which were not usually sold.
Place the oil, plenty of garlic and hot chilli peppers (ginger) in a frying pan and fry
gently. Just when the garlic begins to golden put in the small cuttlefish and the octopus already cut into pieces and leave to cook with the lid on. When these fish are cooked add the wine and leave to evaporate. Add the a few chopped tomatoes and/or some tomato purée along with a little water.
Season to taste with salt and leave to simmer for a short time. Then add the rest of the fish chopped and simmer until everything is
cooked. Then in a dish, place the pieces of toast, already rubbed with garlic and cover with the fish
soup. |
| Recipe
no. 2 |
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For this even tastier recipe you can use eels, squids, mantis prawns, tub-fish,
morays, hakes, scorpion fish, red mullets, octopus, cuttlefish and
lobsters.
For the sauce: pepper, onion, celery, carrot, parsley, garlic, bayleaf and thyme and the toasted bread rubbed with
garlic. |
| Recipe
no. 3 |
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Use the same fish as in recipe no. 2.
Cut the larger fish into pieces of the same size and leave the smaller ones
whole. If you wish you can bone and de-head the fish before cooking and use them to prepare some fish stock. The sauce is made of oil, chopped
garlic, parsley, a leaf of sage, tomato purée and a small piece of lemon
rind. When everything is cooked add some dry white wine or dry Marsala wine.
In this recipe use fry the bread and rub it with
garlic. |
The
dish
This delicious traditional fish soup is very simple to make but as with all other fish soups the original recipe has been - even locally -
modified. For this reason even in Livorno itself you can find many different variations but this recipe is the
truest fishermen’s representation.
The
Wine
This kind of fish recipe is very unusual as it combines red wine with fish. It is possible only because of the meaty fish sauce which matches well with a full flavoured slightly tannic red wine.
Red wine can in fact lessen the piquancy of both hot chillies and garlic which is why
traditionally, Chianti red wine is used which is produced in the hills of Pisa not far from the coast of
Livorno.
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