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Fish Broth (Brodo di Pesce)
I liberal pound of fresh codfish, or any other lean fish for boiling 1 quart of water I onion Parsley Salt and pepper Boil until fish is thoroughly cooked; strain and serve.
A bare-bones fish stock written for cooks who already knew what a fish broth should taste like. The recipe as printed gives quantity and little else, so the judgment calls are all yours.
- The hinge: do not boil it longA rolling boil for more than about 20 minutes turns fish stock cloudy and faintly bitter, and the flesh goes to shreds. Bring it barely to a simmer and hold it there; 20 to 25 minutes is enough to draw everything out of a pound of cod.
- "Liberal pound"A little over a pound, say 475-500 g. The book's measures are often loose rather than exact.
- Which fishLean white fish is specified for a reason: cod, haddock, hake, pollock, whiting. Oily fish such as mackerel, salmon or bluefish make a broth that tastes rank once cooled. Heads, frames and trimmings give more body than fillet alone.
- Onion and parsleyNo quantities are given. One medium onion, halved, and a small handful of parsley stems suit a quart of water; stems are the usual choice for a broth and will not muddy the color.
- SaltingSalt lightly at the start and correct at the end. A quart reduces noticeably over 25 minutes at a simmer.
- StrainingStrain through cloth or a fine sieve rather than a colander, and do not press the solids through -- that is what makes fish broth cloudy. Skim the gray foam off the surface in the first few minutes.
- Yield and useAbout three cups after simmering: two modest bowls served plain, or the base for a rice or pastina soup, a risotto, or the poaching liquid for the fish course that follows.
- The cooked fishNothing is said about it, but it need not be thrown out. Flaked and dressed with oil, lemon and parsley, it is the sort of insalata di pesce lesso familiar in Italian home cooking.
Brodo di pesce is the plainest member of a family of Italian fish soups that runs up through the elaborate regional zuppe -- brodetto on the Adriatic, cacciucco in Tuscany, ciuppin in Liguria -- all of them built on the same principle of extracting flavor from cheap, lean, bony fish. Its place among the book's soups reflects the Italian meal structure of the period, in which a light brodo often opened the meal and could serve as a vehicle for a handful of small pasta or rice rather than as a dish in its own right. The recipe's brevity is characteristic of Antonia Isola's Simple Italian Cookery (1912), among the earlier Italian cookbooks written in English for American households; the book appears to assume a reader who could already cook and needed only the proportions and the idea. Serving the broth and the boiled fish as two separate courses rather than together is a familiar practice in Italian home cooking, and may explain why the recipe ends where it does.