Name: Cappon Magro
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 3 gallette del marinaio (for shopping sources; if you absolutely cannot obtain gallette del marinaio, Uneeda biscuits make a marginally acceptable substitute); 1 clove garlic, cut in half with the green heart removed; ½ cup/115 ml red wine vinegar; 1 2¼ pound/1 kilo fillet of firm fish such as cod, scrod, gilthead, or dentex, cut into 3 pieces; 5 olives, pitted, or 1 tablespoon olive paste; 1 ounce/2 tablespoons/30 ml red wine vinegar; 2 medium beets, peeled; 8 whole mushrooms packed in oil; 3 large carrots, peeled, cut into bite-size chunks; 2 large hard-boiled eggs; 8 green or black olives; 3 tablespoons/3/16 cup/20 g capers packed in vinegar or brine; 2 medium zucchini, cut into thick disks; 8 baby artichokes, halved, doused in lemon juice; 8 large shrimp or prawns, boiled, shells removed; 8 raw oysters; 1¼ cups/5 ounces/140 g slender green beans; 1 lobster, about 2 pounds/1 kilo, boiled or steamed, cooled, cut into 8 pieces with the shell still attached; 1 small piece soft white bread; 6 tablespoons/⅜ cup/40 g pinoli; 1 clove garlic, peeled, with the green heart removed; 1 pinch coarse sea salt; ½ head small cauliflower, cored, cut into florets; 2 medium potatoes, peeled, cut into bite-size chunks; 1 cup/115 g fresh Italian (flat) parsley; 3 ounces/⅓ cup/85 ml Ligurian extravirgin olive oil

Preparation info

Makes
8
servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Recipes from Paradise

By Fred Plotkin

Published 1997

About

This dish is at once very Ligurian and yet not at all typical of any other food preparation. In its opulent show of excess it is antithetical to everything Ligurians hold dear. Yet in its attention to quality, to festivity, and to subtlety, it suits Liguria perfectly. With ingredients piled high like a maritime pyramid of Cheops, Cappon Magro is the extravagant consummation of the wedding of the land and the sea. In that this dish is food as architecture, which became all the rage among fan