Skinny capon

The lean cappon is a triumph of fish and vegetables seasoned with green sauce, a rich traditional Ligurian dish.

Today we are preparing a recipe that is a little more complicated than usual, but which lends itself to many variations both in terms of ingredients and plating: we are talking about lean cappon. This dish, typical of the Ligurian tradition , consists of a single dish based on fish and vegetables which is enriched with a tasty Ligurian green sauce and served with biscuits and crackers made with flour and water.

There are truly infinite variations of this dish, starting with fish: scampi and lobsters are usually used as garnish, while within the dish we can find shrimp , mussels, clams, octopus, hake, cod, sea bream or sea bass . Over time, however, the recipe became more elaborate, becoming a traditional dish of Ligurian culinary culture. In short, try making it and serving it as a main dish for some special occasion: the result will be incredible!

How to prepare the lean cappon recipe

1. Let's move on to preparing the green sauce . Wet the bread with the vinegar and leave it aside. In the meantime, clean the parsley and transfer it to a blender together with anchovies , capers , egg yolks , garlic and 160 g of extra virgin olive oil .
2. Squeeze the bread, add it to the previous ingredients and blend until you obtain a smooth and homogeneous consistency. Season with salt and pepper then set aside.
3. Now peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them into thin slices. Cook them separately in boiling salted water for 15 and 10 minutes respectively. In the meantime, also cut the beetroot into slices.
4. Blanch the green beans for 10 minutes and the cauliflower florets for 15 minutes. Keep all the vegetables aside well separated.
5. Clean the fish (we recommend using capon or scorpion fish, but all types of white fish such as hake are fine). Boil it in water together with wine, bay leaves and juniper berries for 20 minutes then shred it.
6. Clean the prawns by removing the shell and intestines and blanch them for a couple of minutes. Also clean the scampi, leaving the shell and blanching them for 5 minutes, just long enough for them to brown.
7. Now that all the ingredients are ready, all that remains is to assemble the dish. First, get a mold (both a bowl and the classic plumcake mold are fine) and cover it with cling film.
8. Put two glasses of water , 1 teaspoon of fine salt and 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a bowl and use it to dip the sailor's biscuits . Use them to cover the entire inside of the mold to form a shell. Spread a little green sauce inside.
9. At this point start layering the ingredients. You can put them in any order you prefer but our advice is: cauliflower florets, 8 prawns, sliced ​​carrots, tuna and a layer of green sauce. Continue with green beans, fish, beetroot, green sauce and potatoes. After spreading each layer, press lightly with your hands to compact it. Complete with a base of soaked biscuits. Cover with cling film and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 6-8 hours .
10. Turn the lean cappon upside down onto a serving plate, remove the film and finish decorating : spread a generous layer of green sauce, distribute the remaining prawns, scampi and sliced ​​hard-boiled eggs. Then serve cut into slices.

The preparation of lean cappon requires time and organization but on the other hand you will have a refined and elegant appetizer perfect to serve at Christmas or New Year's Eve , just as the Ligurian tradition dictates. Here is a short video where you can see the steps to create the layers. If you notice any discrepancies, it is completely normal: since it is a typical recipe, each family has its own variations.

Among the other typical dishes of Liguria we recommend you also try the capponadda : many ingredients are in common but the procedure is decidedly less elaborate.

Conservation

The lean capon will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, well covered in an inverted bowl.

Origin and history

Of all the recipes we have seen, never has it been as difficult as with lean cappon to reconstruct its history and origin. Historians just can't agree on either the period of birth or the origin of the name.

As for the name, there are several hypotheses. There are those who connect it to the capon fish , which in Liguria is the scorpion fish while in other areas of Italy it is the gurnard, whose goodness of meat is comparable to that of the castrated rooster. Those who, on the other hand, trace the lean capon back to periods of famine in which the more valuable meat was replaced by fish which was never lacking in the region. According to others, however, it derives from the French term chapon used to indicate the bread biscuits present in the recipe.

If you can't find a common thread in the name, let alone the origin. There are several legends regarding the birth of the dish. According to some sources it was the food of galley sailors who used to mix their ration before consuming it. According to others, it was the servants ' food that mixed the masters' leftovers to create "new" dishes.

Among the most accredited hypotheses, however, is its noble origin. It is believed that the ancestor of cappon magro was a biscuit soaked and stuffed with fish. Over time the recipe was enriched, becoming, in the Baroque era , the sumptuous dish we know today.

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