RECIPE CAPPON MAGRO with Genovese Green Sauce

Cappon magro with Genovese green sauce is one of the most renowned recipes of traditional Ligurian cuisine: the typical dish for special occasions, especially at Christmas.

A true triumph of FISH and VEGETABLES, the queen of “mixed salads” featuring an endless variety of mollusks, fish, crustaceans and vegetables accompanied by the unbeatable Genovese GREEN SAUCE (not to be confused with Piedmontese Green Sauce), flavorful and light.

I confess that Cappon Magro is without doubt my favourite recipe among all the typical Genoese preparations, so much so that it is the main dish and always present at our home not only at Christmas and New Year’s but even for my birthday.

A traditional recipe of Ligurian and Genoese cuisine with humble origins because it was originally a recovery dish of fishermen and sailors who used the mix of unsold fish and crustaceans at the end of the day, adding the classic Sailor’s Biscuit (galletta del marinaio).

Over time Cappon Magro has evolved and improved, becoming today certainly one of the most spectacular preparations of Genoese cuisine.

As with all traditional recipes there are many versions; the Cappon Magro recipe we will prepare today is my family’s original recipe, handed down from my grandmother.

In this recipe I used the following vegetables: potatoes, green beans, black salsify, carrots and red beet, while for fish: cappone (fish), shrimp, tuna belly and octopus, and I completed everything with the indispensable Genovese green sauce, hard-boiled eggs and the Sailor’s Biscuit.

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Expensive
Preparation time: 4 Hours
Cooking time: 1 Hour
Portions: 8
Cooking methods: Stovetop
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: New Year's Eve, Christmas

418.23 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 418.23 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 16.24 (g) of which sugars 4.10 (g)
Proteins 21.29 (g)
Fat 30.73 (g) of which saturated 2.83 (g)of which unsaturated 23.06 (g)
Fibers 3.06 (g)
Sodium 199.71 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 150 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

9 oz potatoes
9 oz green beans
1 black salsify (or cauliflower)
9 oz carrots
1 red beet, cooked
16 oz scorpion fish (scorfano) (if available, cappone (fish) is preferable)
9 oz shrimp (or scampi)
7 oz tuna belly (ventresca) (or tuna in oil)
5 oz octopus (carpaccio)
1 sailor's biscuit (galletta del marinaio) (or unleavened bread)
1 sheet gelatin
to taste red wine vinegar
2 leaves bay leaves
4 berries juniper berries
to taste dry white wine
4 oz parsley (4 oz of leaves are about 11 oz of bunches)
1 clove garlic
1 egg (hard-boiled)
4 pickled gherkins
1 bread crumb (soaked in red wine vinegar)
4 green olives (pitted)
1 oz capers
2 fillets anchovy fillets in oil
1 oz pine nuts
1 cup sunflower oil
mayonnaise
shrimp (or prawns)
pickled gherkins (or marinated artichoke hearts)
olives (green and/or black)

Tools

Pot
Terrine

Steps

GELATIN: I should say that some recipes do not use gelatin: I chose to brush each layer with a little preparation to make a more “stable” and visually pleasing Cappon Magro, but you are free not to use it. To prepare the gelatin, put 1 cup (8 fl oz) of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Then add the gelatin sheet and stir until completely dissolved. Add another 1 cup (8 fl oz) of cold water. The gelatin is ready to use.

Put oil, pine nuts, capers, anchovies, pickled gherkins, garlic, egg, squeezed bread crumb into the blender cup and blend for 10 seconds. Gradually add the parsley leaves while continuing to blend until you obtain a smooth sauce. Let it rest in the fridge for 24 hours before using.
Clean all the vegetables. Peel the black salsify and the carrot with a vegetable peeler. Trim the tips off the green beans. Wash the potatoes but do not peel them. Cook them separately in boiling salted water, as they all have different cooking times. Drain them when tender but still firm. Once cooked, slice them all thinly except for the green beans. Peel the beet and slice it thinly.
Put water, wine, bay leaves and a few juniper berries in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the whole cappone fish and simmer for about 20 minutes, then drain, remove the head, skin and central bone and shred the flesh by hand. Blanch the shrimp tails for a few minutes and peel them. For mollusks you can use boiled octopus (recipe here) or Octopus Carpaccio (recipe here) which, if you do not want to prepare at home, can be bought ready-made at the supermarket.
Dissolve the gelatin in 2 cups (about 500 ml) of water and boil for 5 minutes, then let cool. Line a baking dish with cling film leaving the edges hanging out (this will make it easier to remove from the mold later).
Put a very thin layer of gelatin on the bottom, then a layer of Genovese Green Sauce. For the next layer use unleavened bread (in Genoa the Sailor’s Biscuit) slightly moistened in water and red wine vinegar, then brush with a thin layer of gelatin and then again with green sauce.
Continue layering in this way (the order may vary): 1 OCTOPUS or Octopus Carpaccio – 2 BLACK SALSIFY then brush with gelatin and green sauce – 3 TUNA FILLETS in oil or tuna belly – 4 GREEN BEANS neatly aligned then brush with gelatin and green sauce – 5 CAPPONE FISH – 6 layer of CARROTS then brush with gelatin and green sauce – 7 shrimp tails or scampi – 8 BOILED POTATOES and brush with gelatin and green sauce – 9 final layer of UNLEAVENED BREAD soaked in water and vinegar.
Now that you have composed the layers of the Cappon Magro, fold the edges of the cling film over, place a weight on top and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. After the resting time you can plate and decorate the Cappon Magro. Take a serving plate and spread a thin layer of green sauce, place the terrine you used to prepare the cappon magro on top and unmold it. Decorate with Genovese GREEN SAUCE and mayonnaise (you can find the recipe HERE) and garnish as desired with shrimp tails, scampi and/or boiled vegetables. It will be a triumph of fish and vegetables, almost a shame to cut it!

STORAGE

Cappon magro keeps in the fridge for two days. You can freeze it if all the ingredients you bought were frozen and you cook them first.

NOTES

SAILOR’S BISCUIT: The Sailor’s Biscuit (galletta del marinaio) is a dry bread shaped like a flattened focaccia that must be soaked in water and vinegar; if you can’t find it you can use unleavened bread or slices of rustic bread toasted.

VEGETABLES: You can change the vegetables and for example use cauliflower, fennel or celery.

FISH: Usually cappone fish is used, which can be replaced with scorpion fish (scorfano) or another fish with firm white flesh.

PRESENTATION IDEAS: Cappon Magro can be placed in a terrine as in my case or in a salad bowl and will take the shape (when inverted) of a half-sphere, or served as single portions. Lately in restaurants it is also served in a deconstructed version as a fish and vegetable salad.

CURIOSITY

The recipe of Cappon Magro boasts a very long and ancient tradition. There are several hypotheses about the origin of its name: it could derive either from the use of the cappone fish (gallinella or scorfano), or from the fact that it was consumed as a “magro” (meatless) dish instead of the capon (meat) on Christmas Eve, or from the French word “chapon” which indicates a toasted bread crouton rubbed with garlic used for soups. The origins of Cappon Magro, today considered one of the most spectacular and sumptuous preparations of Genoese and Ligurian cuisine in general, are humble: it was considered the poor sailors’ dish, what we would now call a recycling recipe, using leftovers from the catch and sumptuous banquets to create a fish and vegetable salad.

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CAPPON MAGRO with Genovese Green Sauce