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Recipe: Brodetto di Caorle or fish soup

Discover Caorle's brodetto, a fish soup from the Venetian lagoon: an ancient fishermen's recipe to be enjoyed with white polenta or homemade bread.

By redazione Updated: 13 February 2026 2 min read

In the past, it was a staple on the tables of fishing families: Caorle fish soup – or “broetto”, in Venetian dialect – is a unique dish based on fish and can be eaten alone or served together with the proverbial and local white polenta or even with slices of homemade bread. It can be tasted in infinite combinations because every inhabitant has its own secret that makes it unique and its simplicity tells the story of the sea, when during the navigation the fishermen improvised recipes with what they had available from the kingdom of Neptune. It is a unique dish, one of the oldest and most famous in the lagoon, and there are many variations as well as its own personal “touches”, each one uses the fish he prefers or the one he finds in the catch of the day.

Ingredients

2 crab claws or, alternatively, 3-4 mantis shrimp
1 John Dory fish
1 tub gurnard
1 monkfish tail
500 grams of cuttlefish
100 grams of tomato purée
extra virgin olive oil
white vinegar
salt
pepper

Method

In a large pan put the extra virgin olive oil and start cooking the claws of the crab, previously cut into small pieces. Add two glasses of water and half a kilo of cuttlefish, bringing it to a boil. At this point pour the rest of the fish – a San Pietro fish, the sea hen and the monkfish – after having cut it into slices. When the fish is cooked, turn off the heat, wait for about ten minutes and pour into the pan a glass of white vinegar, a pinch of pepper, one of salt and a hundred grams of tomato sauce. Alternatively, you can use or a third of a concentrated tomato tube. At this point, continue cooking until the tomato is congealed and when the broth is ready, serve it in a deep dish accompanied with white polenta. Alternatively, for a quicker preparation, you can use slices of homemade bread.

…Enjoy your meal!
Main photo: www.turismovenezia.it

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