Brodetto di Pesce alla Pesarese

Ingredients

• 400 g cuttlefish, cleaned; ink sac reserved separately if making the black version
• 400 g mantis shrimp (canocchie / cicale di mare), scored along the underside; left in shell
• 300 g monkfish, cut into portions
• 300 g skate, cut into portions
• 250 g sole, whole or filleted
• 250 g whiting, whole or filleted
• For the soffritto and broth
• 1 large white onion, finely sliced
• 400 g ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped, or passata
• 80 ml white wine vinegar, added to the soffritto during cooking, not at the end
• 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra raw oil for service
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 500 ml water, or light fish stock; the broth must remain thin and clear
• To serve
• 4 thick slices Pesarese bread, toasted and rubbed with a raw garlic clove
• 1 clove garlic, halved, for rubbing the toast

Method

1. 1
   Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pot over a medium flame. Add the sliced onion and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until it is fully softened and translucent — it must not colour. Pour in the white wine vinegar and allow it to cook into the onion base for two to three minutes, until its sharpness softens but its character remains. Add the tomatoes. Cook the soffritto for a further five minutes until the tomatoes collapse into the onion. The base should smell sharp, sweet, and savoury simultaneously — this is the correct moment to proceed.
2. 2
   Add the cuttlefish and mantis shrimp to the soffritto. Pour in the water or light fish stock. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for fifteen minutes, uncovered. The broth should be thin, tomato-tinged, and visibly clear — not opaque or thickened. If using the ink sac, break it into the broth now and stir to dissolve. The cuttlefish is ready for the next stage when it yields slightly to a spoon's pressure but is not yet fully tender.
3. 3
   Add the monkfish and skate. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: each fish must enter the pot in strict order of density and cooking time — firm fish now, delicate fish later — because simultaneous addition guarantees some are overcooked and the broth becomes muddied with broken proteins. Maintain a gentle, not rolling, simmer. Cook for eight minutes. The flesh of the monkfish should be just beginning to flake at its thickest point when pressed.
4. 4
   Lay the sole and whiting into the broth. Cook for five minutes only. The delicate fish are done when the flesh turns from translucent to opaque throughout and separates easily along its natural grain at the lightest touch — do not wait for it to flake free entirely, as carry-over heat in the broth will finish the cooking.
5. 5
   Taste the broth and adjust salt. It should be assertively sharp from the vinegar, clean, and thin — not viscous. Place a slice of toasted, garlic-rubbed Pesarese bread in the base of each wide bowl. Ladle fish and broth over the bread generously. Finish each bowl with a drizzle of raw extra-virgin olive oil. The bread will begin to absorb the broth immediately — serve without delay.