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Fish in the crazy water – Pesce All’Acqua Pazza

Simple and everyday dish: Fish in the crazy water – Pesce All’Acqua Pazza

Back home lunch was always eaten by everyone, meeting at home – usually around 1pm.

My grandmother, my lovely Nonna, would do something fast – normally something cooked ‘all’acqua pazza‘.

One of the dishes that I have taken for granted whilst living there was Pesce all’acqua Pazza – which translated means ‘fish in the crazy water’. This dish was always considered as something simple and everyday – definitely not a dish for the guests!! This happened to be on the menu often when it was too hot to think about what to cook.

 A simple and everyday dish

Fish – it can be any type and if you are cooking for a family it is best to choose mixed fish. This makes better soup. Ideally you would have some fish from the ‘sea’ and some fish from the ‘rock’.  Fish from the sea are the ones that live in the open sea and from the rocks are the ones that like pottering around rocks and in general they do not go to the open sea. 

Normally the ‘sea fish’ would be sea bream or sea bass and ‘rockfish’ would be grouper. 

As a child I would always go for sea bream or bass as it has less bones. My nonno would say that cats know the best and he always chooses the grouper. 

A very simple recipe

Pesce all’acqua Pazza or just as Aqua Pazza is a very simple recipe:

• Put some sea salt and ground black pepper and rub it in each fish. 
• In the pot put some olive oil – just to cover the bottom and put fish on the top of i . Just to cover the bottom of the pot – the fish mustn’t be on top of each other. 
• Then fry it for a couple of minutes. Add garlic (think of 1 clove per smaller fish) for a minute then add white wine and water to cover the fish, but not completely. Water and wine should be just halfway to the height of the fish. Add a handful of halved cherry tomatoes and a handful of chopped parsley( think 2 cherry tomatoes and 1⁄2 teaspoon of parsley per fish). Let it simmer for 20 min. 
• Serve fish with the sauce that was cooked in and drizzle with very good quality olive oil.  You can serve some fresh boiled zucchini drizzled with olive oil on the side. 

Delicious! So simple and everyday dish, yet so tasty!

Of course it is best if it is wild and fresh fish. 

I know we are not in Italy, but lots of nice fishmongers will have good fish (always look that fish’s eyes are clear – that is sign that fish is fresh!) 

Buon appetito!

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