Stockfish Sburrita

The word sburrita or sburita refers to a fish soup enhanced by herbs or vegetables, often served with garlic flavoured croutons. The most popular version on the Island of Elba is the recipe from Rio, and if made properly is very tasty indeed. The stockfish "sburrita" was what the miners took to work for their lunch.

Ingredients

1 kg of stockfish, 1 chilli pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, calamint, white wine, bread

Method

Place the stockfish in water and leave to soften, then fillet and cut into pieces. Meanwhile chop 6/7 cloves of garlic, a handful of calamint and the chilli pepper

, put them in a pot of cold water, add a glass of oil, bring to the boil and boil slowly for 45 minutes; add the stockfish and boil gently for another 30 minutes. Don't add salt because the stockfish is already quite salty.

Toast the slices of bread and place in a terracotta dish (it keeps the heat better). Pour the soup and stockfish over the bread.

Serve hot.

Photographs taken from Cucinare Pesce (" How to cook fish") website