Cacciucco Alla Viareggina

Cacciucco alla Viareggina

The signature fish stew of Viareggio on the Tuscan Versilia coast — a rich, peppery red broth loaded with at least five different fish plus shellfish, served over toasted garlic-rubbed bread.

Prep

30 min

Cook

55 min

Total

85 min

Serves

6

Difficulty

Medium

Recipe ingredients

• •150 g (5 oz) monkfish (palombo), skin off, cut into chunks
• •150 g (5 oz) scorpionfish (scorfano), head and bones reserved for stock; fillets cut into chunks
• •150 g (5 oz) red mullet (triglia), gutted; can substitute another small white fish
• •150 g (5 oz) John Dory (pesce San Pietro) or grouper (cernia), cut into chunks
• •150 g (5 oz) cod (merluzzo), fresh, skin off, in chunks
• •200 g (7 oz) calamari, tubes and tentacles, cleaned
• •500 g (1 lb 2 oz) mussels (cozze), scrubbed and debearded
• •500 g (1 lb 2 oz) clams (vongole veraci), purged in salted cold water 1 hour
• •300 g (10½ oz) prawns (gamberi), shell on
• •1 L (4¼ cups) passata di pomodoro, or 700 g ripe San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
• •250 ml (1 cup) dry white wine, Vermentino if possible
• •1 L (4¼ cups) fish stock, see step 1; from fish heads/bones
• •120 ml (½ cup) extra-virgin olive oil, Versilia DOP if available, plus more for finishing
• •6 cloves garlic, 3 for the stew, 1 halved for the bread
• •1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus extra
• •1 tsp dried peperoncino flakes, or 1 fresh chili, sliced
• •400 g (14 oz) Tuscan bread, day-old, sliced 1.5 cm thick
• •sea salt, to taste
• •black pepper, to taste, freshly ground

Steps

1. 1 Make the stock: sweat 1 chopped onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk and a bay leaf in a splash of olive oil for 8 minutes. Add the reserved heads and bones from scorpionfish and any other non-oily fish, cover with 1.2 L cold water, bring to a bare simmer and cook 25 minutes. Strain. (Home-kitchen substitution: a light bottle clam juice plus water works; do not use chicken stock.)
2. 2 While the stock simmers, purge the clams in heavily salted cold water for 1 hour, then rinse. Scrub and debeard the mussels, discarding any that stay open when tapped.
3. 3 In a wide, heavy pot (a 30 cm Dutch oven is ideal), warm the 120 ml olive oil over medium heat. Add the 3 whole peeled garlic cloves and the peperoncino and cook gently until the garlic turns pale gold, about 3 minutes — do not brown it or the stew will turn bitter. Remove the garlic.
4. 4 Add the calamari and sauté 2 minutes until they tighten. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble hard for 3 minutes to cook off the alcohol.
5. 5 Stir in the passata and 800 ml of the fish stock (reserve the rest). Season lightly with salt (the shellfish will add salinity) and pepper. Simmer 15 minutes to thicken slightly.
6. 6 Add the firm white-fleshed fish in this order based on cooking time: first the monkfish and scorpionfish, simmer 5 minutes; then the cod, John Dory and red mullet, simmer 4 minutes more. Add a splash of reserved stock if the level drops below the fish.
7. 7 Add the mussels and clams, cover, and cook 3–4 minutes until most shells have opened. Discard any that remain tightly closed.
8. 8 Tuck in the prawns on top, cover again, and cook 2 more minutes — prawns are done when they curl into a C and turn pink with an internal temperature of 62°C / 144°F; do not overcook or they turn rubbery.
9. 9 Taste and adjust salt, pepper and peperoncino. The broth should be intensely briny, spicy and a little oily on the surface. Stir in most of the chopped parsley.
10. 10 Just before serving, toast the Tuscan bread slices on a grill pan or under the broiler until charred at the edges. Rub each slice all over with the cut side of the halved garlic clove and place in the bottom of warm deep plates.
11. 11 Ladle the fish, shellfish and a generous amount of broth over the bread in each plate. Drizzle each portion with a good glug of raw extra-virgin olive oil, scatter with the remaining parsley and serve immediately with more bread on the side. Cooked mussels and clams must reach an internal temperature of 74°C / 165°F — the meat should be opaque and pull away from the shell easily.