Brodetto
Naziv
Brodetto
Klasifikacija prema RKD
Vrsta
Država
Opis
Once the Adriatic Sea joined its shores and it was a road of communication between people around it. The living conditions of the seafarers saw no difference between one place and another of the Adriatic Sea.
Nothing was wasted, especially when there was no good catch. Deteriorated and unsold fish were cooked on board with remedied seasoning. This is how Brodetto was born: a term that indicated what was cooked by boat. Sure enough “boat” in Slavic is Brod, Brudet and Brujet on the east coast and Brodetto on the west coast.
All Brodetti were different from one port to another and from region to region but they were all united by the common belonging to the Adriatic maritime culture still little known to most. For this reason, there is no vocabulary of the Italian language that has correctly defined it.
Since the second half of the eighteenth century with the arrival of Paranze boats, people from San Benedetto del Tronto have always been linked to the sea and they draw more and more their livelihood from fishing: that is how a real cooking of fish and Brodetto was born.
On board they used a mixture of water and vinegar called “masa” which served both to preserve water to drink and to disinfect small wounds. So, it ended up in the fish cooking on board. A little bit of onion, “masa” and fish were the ingredients of the known “lattarella” (which was forerunner of the Brodetto).
With the improvement of living conditions, exchanges of raw materials are intensified and, in addition to onions, green peppers and tomatoes, appear sour tomatoes in Brodetto.
Then it entered home cooking, but it was refined, and each family makes its own version.
There are no written recipes (the oldest is in a guide of San Benedetto del Tronto published by the City in 1966) because Brodetto recipe was born in an area where oral tradition is the only way to transfer the “know-how”.
Today each restaurant offers its own Brodetto and the common ingredients are onion, capsicum peppers, green tomato, white wine vinegar, stale or toasted bread to accompany the dish.
