Name: Lucanian Fish Soup (Zuppa di Pesce Lucana)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: about ½ teaspoon chilli powder; 10 fl oz (300 ml) cold water; 4 slices coarse bread or 8 slices cut diagonally from a French stick, lightly toasted; ½ dried red chilli pepper, left intact; 1 handful parsley, finely chopped; 2¼ lb (1.2 kg) assorted fresh white and rock fish (such as cod, coley, red mullet, eel, huss, monkfish); 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed; 2 fl oz (50 ml) olive oil; salt

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Italian Regional Cookery

By Valentina Harris

Published 1990

About

This recipe for a very simple fish soup comes from the fishing port of Maratea in Basilicata. Like all recipes from this poverty-stricken area, it is almost completely devoid of any fancy ingredients and is made with what is easily available. You can recognise its origin almost at once, thanks to the presence of the diavolicchio (little devil) or chilli pepper among the ingredients. Most recipes from Basilicata use large quantities of chilli. As it is more like a fish stew than a smooth sou