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Slovenian

Slovenia: Brodet

There are recipes that seem to wander all over the landscape before settling down to become associated with a specific region. Brodet is one of these.

It looks to have started out life on the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea as brodetta, a fairly basic fish soup. But as it traveled around, it started to pick up ingedients: tomatoes here, onions there, some wine vinegar somewhere else. The broth in which the fish was initially simmered became more complex, something more like the court-bouillon of classic French cooking. And then the dish crossed the water to the eastern side of the Adriatic and associated itself with all kinds of different fish: bonito, eel, flounder, dentex, red mullet, sea bream, John Dory. The soup's probably not done with its travels yet: brodet is known as far away as Corfu.

Ideally, brodet should evoke a kind of Adriatic bouillabaise -- the best of the day's catch, simmered fresh in a flavorful stock. Its long residence in the region is suggested by the fact that brodet is often served with that favorite south-central European side dish, polenta. One hint: many brodet recipes suggest that the soup should never be stirred -- this being the best way of keeping the chunks of delicate fish intact. The furthest one may go, in some versions, is to pour fish and stock gently from one pot to the next.

Click "read more" for the recipe.

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