Livornese cacciucco mingles cultures and seafood for a richly flavoured soup that’s just made for sharing

According to the cultural association Livorno Euro Mediterranea, the name of the city’s sociable soup-stew, cacciucco, is borrowed from the Turkish word küçük (small). The reason for this, according to the more plausible origin myths and etymology accepted by linguistic science, is the introduction to a Livornese tavern (possibly by a Turkish sea merchant) of a Turkish fish soup called balık çorbası. The resourceful and quickly adopted recipe called for küçük balık (small fish), and küçük was borrowed and became cacciucco.

However the soup came into being, a recipe made from an amalgam of fish had the most favourable environment in a thriving Tuscan seaport with its amalgam of communities, as well as in the arrival of tomatoes in everyday cooking, in the late 1700s. The evolving cacciucco reflected all of this, so no wonder it became a symbol of the city. At this point, I must also mention cacciucco from the town of Viareggio, 50km north of Livorno, which is also as loved and as varied as the cooks who make it. Cacciucco in all forms illustrates beautifully the food historian Massimo Montanari’s theory that (often) the key word in the evolution of recipes is “encounter”: “The more numerous and interesting the encounters, the richer the result.”

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