Today Fabio is sharing how he cooks the infamous Cacciucco Livornese, an Italian seafood stew from his mom’s hometown, Livorno, Italy in our catamaran galley. Because the traditional seafood ingredients weren’t available Fabio improvised with what he could find locally, including the Florida rock lobster. I am a huge fan of lobster so I was not mad about this. 🙂
Below you will find Fabio’s recipe and another traditional recipe that includes onions and red wine. If you make this recipe let us know in the comments below and post to Instagram using #HarborsUnknownCooks. Feel free to ask any questions you may have! We’re happy to help. Don’t forget to like this video and subscribe to come along for the journey. 🙂
Fabio’s Recipe from the Video:
Yield: serves 6-8
Ingredients
1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Bunch of fresh sage leaves
2 hot red chile
3 cloves garlic (leave whole so the garlic doesn’t burn)
One octopus, cleaned and cut into tentacles
4 Red Mullets (or whatever small fish you can find)
12 oz. mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1 large Snapper head
2 Rock Lobsters
12 oz Pomi (or other strained tomatoes)
2 tbsp. tomato paste
Ground black pepper, to taste
Salt only if needed
Italian ciabatta bread
Instructions
Heat oil in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add sage, and 3 cloves of garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add octopus, and cook, stirring occasionally. Once it has started making water add the strained tomato and paste, stir well, season with pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 20-25 minutes in total.
While the octopus is cooking, steam the red mullets and snapper head together for about 5 minutes until cooked. Remove the meat from the bones and keep off to one side. Strain the remaining broth and save until the end.
Par boil the lobster tails for one minute. Then remove the shell from the lobster tail and chop the meat into bite size pieces.
After the octopus has cooked for about 15 minutes add the mussels and cook for 5-10 minutes or until they open. Add the lobster. Cook for a couple of minutes. Taste it to see if it’s done. Add the fish and a little bit of the fish stock. Stir together e voila, the cacciucco is finished.
Slice crusty Italian bread, (we like ciabatta from Gran Forno in Ft. Lauderdale) and toast it in the pan. Once toasted rub the bread with garlic. Place the bread in a shallow bowl and ladle the cacciucco onto the bread. Enjoy with a glass of fabulous red wine!
By the way, cacciucco is the only Italian word with 5 C’s.
Traditional Recipe
Yield: serves 6-8
Ingredients
1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. minced parsley
Half an onion chopped
Bunch of fresh sage leaves
2 hot red chile
3 cloves garlic
12 oz cuttlefish cleaned and cut into 1″ pieces
One octopus, cleaned and cut into tentacles
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup red wine
One cup chopped tomatoes with juice
Ground black pepper, to taste
Salt only if needed
1 monkfish, cut into 2″ pieces
1 rock fish cut into 2″ pieces
1 piece dog fish or conger heel
12 oz. large shell-on mantis shrimp
12 oz. mussels, scrubbed and debearded
8 slices (1″-thick) country-style white bread
Instructions
Heat oil in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add parsley, sage, chile flakes, and 4 cloves garlic, minced, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add octopus, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 20 min.
Add tomato paste, stir well, and cook until paste has darkened slightly, about 1 minute. Add wine, and cook, stirring often, until the liquid has evaporated, about 20 minutes.
Add tomatoes along with their juice, season with pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until seafood is tender,
Add monkfish, dog fish, rock fish and cook, covered, until just firm, about 5 minutes. Add Mantis shrimp to the pot and scatter mussels over top.
Cook, covered, without stirring (so as not to break up the seafood), until the fish is barely cooked through and the mussels have opened, about 10-15 minutes.
Toast bread, and rub with garlic to taste. Place stew over bread.
You can also watch this video from Bocca:
Music is from Epidemic Sound:
Weather Any Storm – Cody Francis
Mi Tiempo (Instrumental Version) – Lu-Ni
Luz de Luna – El Neon