{{Short description|Italian fish stew}} {{Italics title}} {{Infobox food | name = ''Cacciucco'' | image = Cacciucco 0422.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = | alternate_name = | country = Italy | region = Tuscany | creator = | course = | type = Fish stew | served = | main_ingredient = Broth, fish, shellfish | variations = | calories = | other = }}
'''''Cacciucco''''' ({{IPA|it|katˈtʃukko|lang}}) is an Italian fish stew native to the western coastal towns of Tuscany.<ref name="Meyer">Danny Meyer, ''The Union Square Cafe Cookbook: 160 Favorite Recipes from New York's Acclaimed Restaurant'' (HarperCollins 2005).</ref> It is especially associated with the port city of Livorno, in Tuscany,<ref name="Chen">Patrizia Chen, ''Rosemary and Bitter Oranges: Growing Up in a Tuscan Kitchen'' (Simon & Schuster, 2010).</ref><ref name="Wright">Clifford A. Wright, ''The Best Stews in the World'', p. 235.</ref> and the town of Viareggio north of it.<ref name="Wright"/>
==Overview== ''Cacciucco'' is a hearty stew consisting of several different types of fish and shellfish;<ref name="Chen"/><ref name="Wright"/> one tradition holds that there should be five different types of fish in the soup, one for each letter ''c'' in ''cacciucco''.<ref name="Wright"/> A wide variety of Mediterranean fish and shellfish may be used, such as red gurnard,<ref name="Wright"/> armored gurnard,<ref name="Wright"/> scorpionfish (''scorfano''),<ref name="Chen"/> small clams such as littleneck or manila,<ref name="Meyer"/> firm-fleshed fish such as monkfish or other whitefish, red snapper, John Dory, or grouper,<ref name="Meyer"/><ref name="Luongo">Pino Luongo & Mark Strausman, ''2 Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen'' (Artisan Books, 2007), p. 154.</ref> mussels,<ref name="Meyer"/><ref name="Luongo"/> shrimp,<ref name="Meyer"/> and calamari.<ref name="Meyer"/> Traditionalist chefs add a stone taken from the sea to the dish.<ref name="Wright"/> Crabs, eels, cuttlefish, octopus, bream, mullet, or anything else caught that day might be used.<ref name="Albala">Ken Albala, ''Three World Cuisines: Italian, Mexican, Chinese'' (Rowman Altamira, 2012), p. 272.</ref>
A wide variety of other ingredients are used in the broth, including various vegetables (which might include onions, tomatoes, leeks, zucchini, or yellow squash), spices (which might include garlic, aniseed, dried crushed red pepper, kosher salt, black pepper, parsley, thyme, or bay leaf) and other ingredients (which might include fish stock, tomato paste, vermouth, or wine, either white or red).<ref name="Wright"/><ref name="Luongo"/><ref name="Albala"/> There are many variants of ''cacciucco'', varying by region and availability of ingredients.<ref name="Luongo"/>
The dish is traditionally attributed to the Near East, as the word ''cacciucco'' comes from the Turkish {{lang|tr|kaçukli}} ("bits and pieces" or "odds and ends"), which reflects how the stew is made, from a variety of fish.<ref name="Wright"/>
Pellegrino Artusi, in his 1891 cookbook, gave a recipe using onions, garlic, oil, parsley, salt, and pepper, with: {{Block quote|whatever fish you may have on hand, including sole, red mullet, gurnard, dogfish, mantis shrimp, and other types of fish in season, leaving the small fish whole and cutting the big ones into small pieces. Taste for seasoning; but in any case it is not a bad idea to add a little olive oil, since the amount of soffritto was quite small}} and served "on two separate platters: on one you place the fish... and on the other... finger-thick slices of bread to soak up all the broth.<ref>Pellegrino Artusi, ''Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well'' (1891; trans. University of Toronto Press)</ref>
==Similar dishes== ''Cacciucco'' is similar to other types of fish stew, such as the French ''bouillabaisse'', Greek ''kakavia'', Spanish zarzuela, and Portuguese caldeirada and the Vietnamese canh chua cá that is very similar also phonetically.<ref name="Wright"/><ref>William Black, ''Al Dente: The Adventures of a Gastronome in Italy'' (Transworld, 2004), p. 63.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Klein |first=John |title=Vietnamese Cookbook for Beginners: 100 Recipes Quick And Easy For Asin Cooking Perfect Homemade To Help You Through Quarantine (Max Asian Cookbook Book 1) |publisher=Kindle edition |year=2020 |edition=English |language=English}}</ref> Cioppino, another fish stew, was created by Italian American fisherman in San Francisco, who used the local Dungeness crab in a variation of the ''cacciucco'' recipe.<ref>Carolyn Miller & Sharon Smith, ''Savoring San Francisco: Recipes from the City's Neighborhood Restaurants'' (Silverback Books, 2005), p. 74.</ref><ref name="Albala"/>
==See also== {{Portal|Italy|Food}} * List of fish dishes
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Italian stews Category:Cuisine of Tuscany Category:Fish stews Category:Mediterranean cuisine