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1
Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed pot over a moderate flame. Add the crushed garlic, sage leaves, and crumbled chilli. Cook until the garlic is pale gold and the oil is fragrant — the kitchen should smell of toasted garlic and spice.
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2
Add the tomato paste and stir it into the oil. Cook for 2 minutes until the paste darkens by one shade. Pour in the Chianti and raise the heat; let it reduce by half. Add the chopped tomatoes, reduce the heat, and simmer the base for 15–20 minutes until it is thick, cohesive, and already carries the full depth of a great dish. Taste it now — this is where the dish lives or dies: the broth must be a finished foundation before a single piece of fish enters the pot.
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3
Add the octopus, cuttlefish, and squid to the broth. Cover and braise over a low-to-moderate flame for 45–60 minutes. Test a piece of octopus by pressing it with a spoon — it should yield without resistance, neither rubbery nor falling apart.
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4
Lay the firm white fish — monkfish, gurnard, scorpionfish or dogfish — over the cephalopods. Do not stir; tilt the pot or ladle hot broth over the fish to baste. Cook for approximately 20 minutes. The fish is ready when the flesh is just opaque through to the bone and pulls away cleanly at its thickest point.
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5
Add the shellfish in the final 8–10 minutes. Tilt and baste; do not stir. Mussels and clams are done when they have opened; prawns when they are pink and just firm to a gentle press. Discard any bivalves that remain closed.
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6
Toast the bread until it is rigid and golden on both surfaces, then rub each slice immediately with the cut face of a garlic clove. Place one slice in each wide bowl. Ladle the stew — broth, cephalopods, fish, and shellfish — over the bread. The bread should begin to soften and absorb the broth at once; the stew itself should be thick enough to barely hold its shape on the surface of the bread.