Simple food...

This was the first BIG dish I made. I was watching “Gordon, Gino & Fred Road Trip” and “cacciucco” was mentioned. It came up again when I watched Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy”. I had to make it!

I couldn’t find an actual recipe for “cacciucco” but I made it up based on what I saw on TV.

The result was this huge pan of mixed seafood feast, hence the name “great catch”!

Ironically, the origin of “cacciucco” came from the fishermen going around the village collecting any leftover seafood from the day’s catch, putting them into a fish soup. I actually cooked the opposite!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 350-400g snapper fillet diced.
• 200g pipis if in season.
• 4 large scallops cut in halves widthwise.
• 8 raw large king prawns with shell, butterflied.
• 12 raw tiger prawns with shell.
• 12 calamari rings or 1 calamari tube cut into rings.
• 2 small lobster tails cut in halves lengthwise.
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves of garlic chopped or crushed
• 1 whole lemon
• 8 Roma tomatoes peeled and diced
• 8 large anchovies
• 1 cup of white wine
• 750 ml water from prawn heads
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 egg, beaten.
• 1 whole red Cayenne chilli chopped
• 200g spaghetti
• Parsley, chopped

Instructions:
Prep:

1. Devein king prawns, remove heads, leave shell on.
2. Devein tiger prawns, remove heads and shell.
3. Cook heads and shell in water, to be used as stock later.
4. If available, put pipis in bowl with salt water and leave for a few hours or overnight to get rid of the sand.
5. Marinate seafood in salt and pepper (ShaoXing wine works too) if previously frozen / thawed, otherwise they’ll be blend.

To cook:

1. Cook pasta as per time on packaging until 1 minute before al dente. Drain and put aside.
2. Put olive oil in pan.
3. Add anchovies, garlic and chilli.
4. Add the king prawns and the tiger prawns, cook till pink.
5. Remove the prawns from the pan.
6. Cook lobster tails meat side down first and flip over after 1 minute.
7. Add white wine and prawn stock.
8. Add scallops, then cod fillet, then calamari.
9. Bring to boil and remove all the seafood from pan, leaving the liquid.
10. Remove lobster meat from shell and cut into chunks.
11. Add pipis to the pan, then cover pan for about 5 minutes or until the pipis start to open.
12. Discard any unopened ones.
13. Remove pipis from the pan.
14. Add tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Bring to boil.
15. (Bonus) Add a beaten egg and stir.
16. Add pasta and all seafood back to pan and cook until al dente (1 minute).
17. Squeeze lemon juice on top and mix.
18. Add chopped parsley and serve in big pan.