Tuscan soup: choice of products, recipe, cooking steps, photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In some areas of Italy, soup is much more popular than pasta. For example, in the region of Tuscany, almost every resident knows how to cook cacucco. This soup is traditionally cooked from several types of fish at once, which is found in the Ligurian Sea a lot. It is believed that the more seafood in a dish, the richer its taste. We will tell you how to cook Tuscan soup in our article. At the very end, we will introduce two more first courses that are popular in this region: with beans and shrimp and tomato puree soup with bread.

Cachukco - traditional Tuscan seafood soup

This dish is rightfully the most interesting in the Italian region of Tuscany. Initially, kachukko was prepared from fish leftovers and trimmings. Today, it is believed that there should be at least five types of fish in the soup (according to the number of letters "c" in the word cacciucco). The traditional recipe has as many as 13 seainhabitants: shrimp, octopus, moray eel, shark, gurnard, eel, mussels, lobster, goby, horse mackerel, sepia, mullet, stone perch. However, most chefs limit themselves to 6-7 kinds of seafood.

There are two versions of the origin of this dish. According to one of them, Tuscan soup was first prepared by the widow of a dead fisherman, whose comrades shared with her what they could. The second version says that the dish was invented by the lighthouse keeper, who was forbidden to fry fish, since the oil could only be used as fuel for the lamp.

In the largest port of Tuscany, Livorno, the Cachukco festival is held annually. The people of the city are very proud of their world-famous soup.

Choice of food for the dish

The consistency of Tuscan soup is more like goulash. It is prepared from a mixture of fish broth and tomato sauce, to which sea delicacies are added. Some chefs add red wine to the soup, thus destroying the myth that only white is served with fish.

To prepare the dish, you need to prepare the following ingredients in advance:

• fish fillet (smelt, dorado, cod, halibut, sea bass, tuna, sea bass, pike perch, tilapia, greenling) - 100 g each;
• seafood (cuttlefish, squid, scallop, shelled mussels, boiled and peeled shrimp, crab meat, tiger shrimp in shell) - 100 g each;
• carrot - 200 g;
• shallot - 200 g;
• garlic - 8 pieces;
• leek - 1 pc.;
• celery - 1 piece;
• spicycapsicum - 1 pc.;
• fennel - ¼ pieces;
• passata sauce - 1 can;
• tomatoes in their own juice - 200 g;
• s alt to taste;
• basil greens.

All types of fish and seafood will need exactly 100 g each. This amount will be enough to make the soup rich and very tasty. You can choose other seafood of your choice. If they are frozen, they must be transferred from the freezer to the refrigerator shelf in advance.

Additionally for fish broth you will need:

• trout tails and heads - 600 g;
• onion - 150 g;
• carrot - 100 g;
• water - 3 l.

After the products are selected, you can proceed directly to the preparation of the first course.

Step-by-step cooking of soup

This dish is prepared quickly and easily. The only difficulty is to find and buy several types of seafood delicacies at once, which must be of good quality.

The process of making soup consists of the following steps:

1. Fish broth. It is made from leftover trout. To do this, the tails and heads of the fish are placed in a pan with an onion head and a whole carrot and poured with cold water. The broth is simmered over low heat for 40 minutes, after which it is filtered through a sieve from the bones.
2. Sauté vegetables for soup. For this dish, you definitely need to take several types of onions, fragrant fennel root and juicy celery stalk.
3. Bookmark in fish and seafood soup. They cook very quickly, after which the dish is brought to the perfect taste with the help of spices and served.

Vegetable dressing for soup

When the fish broth is already cooked and filtered, you can proceed to the second stage of cooking. Step by step it can be represented as follows:

1. Peel the carrots and cut into small cubes.
2. Crush the garlic with the flat side of the knife, then chop it as much as possible.
3. Chop the shallot, leek, fennel and celery stalk finely.
4. Cut hot pepper into rings. Seeds can be removed from the pod if desired. This will make the dish less spicy.
5. Heat olive oil (75 ml) in a saucepan.
6. First, fry the carrots over medium heat. Then add shallots, peppers, fennel and garlic to it.
7. After 10 minutes, transfer leek and celery from a plate to soft vegetables.
8. After 5 minutes, add tomatoes and passata sauce to the pan. You can buy it at the store or make your own. At this stage, you can add red wine (1 cup) to the vegetable dressing or skip it. This will make the taste of the dish no less balanced.

It's all about the fish

After the vegetables in the tomato become soft enough (it is not necessary to allow boiling), strained fish broth is poured into the pan. Now the dish becomes like a real Tuscan soup. At this stage, it needs to be s alted to taste.

OnThe last stage of cooking in the tomato broth is laid seafood. First, cuttlefish, squid and scallop meat should be sent to the pan. Then the fish is laid, cut into pieces the size of a walnut. And after a minute, crab meat, mussels in the wings, shrimp are added to the pan. After 5 minutes, the soup will be ready. It should not be cooked for a long time so that the seafood does not become rubbery.

Serving options

Tuscan soup made from tomatoes in their own juice, vegetables and plenty of fish and seafood is thick and rich. It can be served at the table not only as a first, but also as a second dish. It is recommended to sprinkle fish soup directly on the plate with fresh parsley or basil.

When serving, each type of seafood should be put on a plate, including cuttlefish and mussels in the wings. Such a dish will become a real decoration of the festive table.

Italian soup with beans and shrimp

The next dish is equally popular in Tuscany. And the soup with shrimp and beans is prepared in the following sequence:

1. Put canned beans (3 b.) in a colander to drain excess liquid.
2. Chop onion and garlic (5-6 pieces) finely and fry in a saucepan in olive oil (2 tablespoons). After 3-4 minutes, add tomato paste (¼ tbsp), red pepper flakes (1 tsp) and dried oregano (2 tsp). Mix ingredients and cook 2 moreminutes.
3. Chop canned tomatoes (900 g) and add together with the beans to the pan to the vegetable fry. Pour in 1.5 liters of chicken broth. S alt and pepper the soup, then continue cooking for another 25 minutes.
4. At this time, you can do shrimp. Melt butter in a frying pan. Put chopped parsley and shrimp in it. Fry them on both sides for 3-4 minutes, and at the very end of cooking, add a little s alt.
5. Tear curly cabbage (kale) into pieces with your hands and send to the pan with the first course together with basil leaves. After 5 minutes, remove the Tuscan soup from the heat. According to the recipe, shrimp are not added to it immediately, but are laid out directly on plates.
6. Sprinkle each serving with grated cheese.

Tuscan style tomato puree soup with bread

This dish is quite easy to prepare:

1. Pour olive oil (4 tablespoons) into a saucepan, heat and fry onion, garlic (3 cloves) and fresh basil leaves on it.
2. After 7 minutes, add diced zucchini (300 g) and tomatoes (1 kg).
3. Pour 1 liter of meat or chicken broth into a saucepan with vegetables, add s alt, pepper and simmer the soup over low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Stale loaf or ciabatta (300 g) break into pieces with your hands. Add to soup and cook for 2-3 minutes. A few pieces, if desired, can be left to decorate the dish in a plate.
5. Remove the pot from the heat. Using an immersion blender, grind all the ingredients into a homogeneous mass. The result should be a Tuscan-style soup of tomatoes and zucchini. Divide the dish into bowls. Place a few slices of bread or crackers in the center.