THE CACCIUCCO ACCORDING TO CIOLLI
The origins of the soups is lost in
the mists of time, it does not
matter if we are talking about vegetable soups or fish
soups. However, regarding the identity
of the word Cacciucco, it is the result of various idioms not precisely
recognized and, in lack of a reliable historical evidence, researchers have
invented tales of fantasy with the only certainty that it was a dish for poor
people. In fact there is a tale that
talks about Ferdinandone dei Medici who, upon tasting this dish, came to
understand the essence of his workers who were creating his new Port City and
in that occasion he came to know the customs of the local food.
Another fantasy story is the one
about Amedeo Testalunga and his uncle, the fisherman Giovanni Del Fattore. The two men were given some fish to eat
during their trip to Paris and they stopped to eat and drink in the Land of
Burlamacco where they cooked the leftover fish in a fast way using an old pan
and adding some tomatoes picked in a garden and some pieces of old dried bread.
And what about the story of the
lighthouse keeper? He used to cook the
fish in the work-place causing the condensation on the windows!
But the funniest tale is the one
about a little boy who was taken to the hospital for a bad stomach ache and
when the doctor asked his mother what he had eaten, she answered: - some wine-, and the doctor said, horrified:
- what!? Wine…..to a child?- and the mother replied: - what else should I have
given him after Cacciucco?, some idrolitina…?- (idrolitina was used to turn
natural water into sparkling water and it was sold in small bags).
With reference to the above stories,
as you can notice, Cacciucco was considered a dish for poor people who used to
fill up their bellies with this soup made of leftover fish and spices of a low
quality. Overtime and with the success of the middle class, they began to print
out the recipes reflecting their social class position and this brought to
substantial changes to all the cooking and preparations, not least that of
Cacciucco.
In the 19th century
culture started taking notes of country cooking, regional variations, cooking
methods and innovative ways and it is in this precise historical moment that
the local and regional identity took place.
The introduction of concentrated tomato sauce and, later , of fresh
tomatoes, have given important changes to our dish and the researchers De
Mauro, Emilio de Felice and Aldo Duro
have identified in the word Cacciucco an Arabic origin, which was born in the
city of Livorno and of which the meaning was “chopped food”. Furthermore, we have to say that in 1700 the Jewish
Community gave birth to “BAGITTO”, a language of mixed Iberian, Jewish, Arab,
Italian and “Livornese”, especially among lower-class people usually resident
in the central and shabby part of the city.
Lovers of the Italian language point
out that the word Cacciucco which has 5 “C”, is the result of the local slang
in Livorno called “vernacolo”, of which great chefs, journalists and writers
know very little.
Mr. Artusi, ( born 4th August 1820 in
Forlimpopoli – died 30th
March 1911 in Florence) a famous chef, in the first edition of “CACCIUCCO 1”,
defined this dish as a sea port recipe, particularly in Tuscany, where is very
easy to find various species of fresh fish needed for the purpose. This chef, who had long mustache, spent time
in Livorno in 1853 and he used to eat in cheap taverns and we can assume he
liked poor fish soups. He frequented the
taverns along the bridge called “Ponte alla Sassaia” (a green, white and red house) in which already by the end of
1800 Cacciucco was served. What a
coincidence! The colors of the Italian flag!
Maybe Artusi already had the
intuition of the imminent unification of
Italy by tasting this fabulous dish? Now, all this information brings up a
question: before the unification of
Italy was there another port in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany that could compete
with Livorno and its culinary traditions?
The answer is an emphatic NO.
Mr. Artusi also stated that, being
Cacciucco a heavy dish, we have to be careful in not eating a lot of it, but we
must take into consideration that the difference between me and this famous
chef, is that I am from a seaside town,
instead Artusi was from Forlimpopoli, a town inland of central Italy, and he
knew very little about fish dishes, in fact in his cookbook there are only 40 recipes
about fish. However he was a very good gastronome and had a futuristic vision
of Cacciucco that he had foreseen with garlic bread to be soaked. We have to
point out that this kind of bread replaced the granite biscuits baked in the
ovens of the city by the arab bakers.
There is a continuous progress of
recipes in relation with the change of the seasons, the elements and the ways
of cooking, so also the Cacciucco, with the introduction of tomatoes and red
pepper has reached a new cook adapting itself to new gastronomic traditions. Obviously, over the years, the types of bread
have changed due to the changes of the high quality of the flours and this also
occurred with virgin olive oil which has improved overtime, and even the way of
cooking has changed, the charcoal stoves have been replaced with the gas and
electric ones.
However the recipes are of
fundamental importance to pass on traditions which certainly change over the
years, but we must look forward keeping those guidelines that have given us our
origins.
Our typical dish is similar to other
fish soups, but only in Livorno this kind of soup receives the flavors of
tomato, of red pepper, of fish sauce and it is only in Livorno that Cacciucco gets the strength, the
passion, the aroma, the flavor, the color and the dignity of a great dish,
unique in its category.
After reading all this, we have to
admit how fascinating is the history of the Cacciucco, a fish soup that was
able to change from a dish for poor people to a refined and delicious dish
becoming the gastronomic symbol of our city.
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