Catch of the day

Brodetto has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a fisherman’s stew, writes JOHN IRVING. Today, variations on the traditional staple dot Italy’s Adriatic coast.

- JOHN IRVING

Housed on the ground floor of an anonymous building in an anonymous suburb of the fishing port of Fano in Italy’s Marche region, Maria Tena’s brilliant seafood restaurant, unimaginatively named Da Maria, doesn’t look like a restaurant at all. Outside, the only clue to its identity is a nondescript sign over the door saying “Bar Trattoria – Pesce Fresco.” If it weren’t cluttered with the esoteric wood, glass and metal sculptures of Maria’s daughter, Domenica, the interior – a single room with pink-and-white-tiled walls, a few tables and a bar counter – would be no less modest. The place seems an unlikely sanctuary for apiscine pilgrimage but I, like other devotees, make a point of eating there whenever I’m passing through.

It’s Domenica who answers the phone when one calls to book. Her tone is always apologetic and she speaks as if she’s reading from a script. “We only serve fish but today’s catch was nothing special and we haven’t much to offer. Ma se vi accontentate…” Loosely translated, that means, “Come if you’re prepared to make do with what we’ve got.” She repeats the same litany every time but I know from experience that Maria, a tiny woman in a tiny kitchen – three gas rings, a few earthenware pots, a grill, and a granite worktop – is sure to rustle up something special. That something is often brodetto, the fish stew of the Adriatic.