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    MINUCCIO’S CACCIUCCO
SERVES 6

    This Italian version of bouillabaisse is a surprisingly easy feast in one dish. To Minuccio, “assorted fish” meant whatever was caught fresh that day. Much of it was very inexpensive. In his case, the array was likely to include: anguille (eel), calamari (squid), seppie (cuttlefish), cicale (razor clams), arselle (tiny local clams), gamberetti (shrimp), gallinella (sea robin, a crazy-looking fish whose large fins look like wings), palombo (an equally ugly relative of monkfish), nasello (hake), and perhaps something more delicate, such as San Pietro (Saint Peter’s fish, or red snapper as a good substitute)
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    5 POUNDS ASSORTED FISH
    SALT AND PEPPER
    1 LARGE ONION
    1 OR 2 CELERY STALKS
    1 CARROT
    A HANDFUL OF PARSLEY
    1½ CLOVES GARLIC
    3 TO 5 HOT PEPPERS, FINELY CHOPPED
    1 CUP OLIVE OIL
    1 BAY LEAF
    6 OUNCES RED WINE
    1 POUND TOMATOES ( 2 OR 3 ), ROUGHLY CHOPPED
    30 OR SO SLICES OF BREAD, SUCH AS A BAGUETTE, CUT INTO ROUNDS AND TOASTED
    1 CLOVE GARLIC, SMASHED
    Clean the fish (or have it cleaned), cutting off the heads of the larger ones (reserve the heads!) but keeping the smaller ones intact. If your assortment includes octopus, squid, and/or cuttlefish, cut them into bite-sized pieces. Season all the seafood with salt and pepper. Finely chop the onion, celery, carrot, and parsley. Set aside. In a small bowl, smash 1½ cloves of garlic and the hot peppers with the back of a spoon, and set aside.
    Heat a frying pan to medium-high, then add ½ cup of oil. Sauté the finely chopped onion, celery, carrot, and parsley until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and hot pepper mixture and one whole bay leaf. Sauté for another minute. Toss in the fish heads and cook until the mixture is lightly browned, about 5 minutes (Italians call this stage
imbiondito
, or blond). Pour in the wine, and cook slowly until the alcohol has evaporated. Then add the tomatoes, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the garlic and bay leaf. Strain through a mesh sieve, and set the sauce aside.
    Put the remaining ½ cup of oil in a large casserole and, if your selection includes octopus, squid, and/or cuttlefish, add them to the pot. Pour in the reserved sauce, add 2 cups of water, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
    While the fish is simmering, preheat the oven to 350°F. Rub the bread slices with the smashed garlic clove. Arrange the rounds on a baking sheet and toast them until brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip over the slices and cook for another minute.Turn off the oven, leaving the rounds inside the oven to keep warm.
    Add the sturdier fish (e.g., monkfish, eel) to the casserole dish, and after 5 minutes add the more delicate fish (such as red snapper). Simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if necessary. Serve the cacciucco in bowls over the toasted garlic bread rounds.
    Enjoy with a bottle of Candia dei Colli Apuani. Though it was not from his vineyards, Minuccio and my father liked this local white wine grown in the hills between Tuscany and Liguria to the north. Blended from Vermentino, Trebbiano, and Albarola, Candia is a refreshing, unpretentious white that complements the delicate seafood.
    Becky and I decided to forgo extra storage in favor of creating an
enoteca
, or tasting room, in the rear of the wineshop. With thirteen-foot ceilings and heavy beams, the space already had good bones. From a local quarry that used to supply bluestone for the sidewalks of New York, we installed a bluestone floor andadded pairs of steel French doors that open onto a small garden on which my mother-in-law lavishes attention.
    When I was young, I had always dreamed, as many New Yorkers do, of opening up the closet door and finding an extra bedroom that I had never known existed. Off a boarded-up street and tucked behind the store, the enoteca became that secret hideaway.
    Our fondness for Italy