Brudet Recipe- How To Prepare a Delicious Croatian Fish Stew in 1 Hour

Brudet is a hearty fish stew from the Dalmatia region of Croatia, similar to Greek Bourdeto and Italian Brodetto. The recipes for all three are similar but there’s something unique about each of them. The Croatian version of the recipe is a one-pot dish that consists of marinating some fish and throwing all of the other ingredients in the stew at the right time. Traditionally, the dish is made of a mixture of fishes, most commonly eel, coral trout, scorpionfish, or rockling (but any white fish would do) alongside some shrimps, scamps, and mussels.

Are you a fan of Croatian cuisine? Then you should definitely check out our pasticada recipe and our list of popular Croatian pastries.

Brudet or Brodetto draws its origins from Venice, and it’s likely that this stew appeared somewhere between the 14th and early 16th centuries. The stew was likely invented by fishermen who would often take the fish that were of no commercial value or damaged by the fishing net and make a stew out of the leftovers. And this dish was long consumed only by fishermen because it was basically prepared from leftovers, but things started changing when Bartolomeo Scappi, one of the most famous chefs in the 16th century, declared that “no one can make a better fish stew than the fisherman of Venice”.

Throughout the years, the dish started gaining recognition and spreading across all parts of the Adriatic. That’s why today, brudet or brodetto is famous in coastal towns from Northern Italy to Greece. This brings us to our next point…

Brudet is available in all countries along the Adriatic Coast except for maybe Albania. You can find brudet in Croatia, Italy, Greece, and Montenegro. The dish is also quite popular in some other Slavic countries where Croatian people live but the best places to try Brudet are the coastal town because the most important thing about making this stew is the fish to be as fresh as possible.

In all of these countries, the brudet recipe is slightly different but the brudet recipe is also slightly different in different parts of Croatia. In every town in Dalmatia (where Brudet is most popular), you’ll find a slightly different brudet and in Italy, almost every town has its own variation (i.e. brodetto di Pescara, brodetto di Ancona, etc.).

In Croatia, there are several different types of brudet and we’ll do our best to summarize the most popular ones. For starters, we have the local favorite, Neretva Brudet (also known as Skradisnki brudet). This type of brudet consists of river or sea fish like an eel, sea bass, or shoe fish, and shrimps, fennel, and in some parts of Croatia, even frog meat. Some other popular variations include brudet od liganja (squid brudet) and brudet od morskog psa (shark brudet). I’ve also seen some people preparing brudet with fish fillets but this seemed very unauthentic and honestly not as tasty.

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You can use various types of fish. Some common choices include eel, scallop, or scorpionfish, but you can also make brudet out of coral trout, rockling, shrimps, squids, shark, etc. Many local chefs in Croatia also like to add some crab meat or crab shell to enhance the flavor. Some chefs experiment more with local vegetables and spices while others even throw in some frog meat (unlike what you might think, this version is actually very tasty too).

Brudet is usually prepared in large amounts in traditional pans with a heavy bottom. Traditionally, the stew is served while still hot in deep bowls alongside some polenta (in a separate plate) or homemade white bread and a glass (or two) of fine Croatian white wine like Postup or Rizvanac Bjeli.

Add some wine while cooking the fish, it’s a game-changer.

We encourage you to use only fresh tomatoes when making brudet but if it’s not tomato season, you can use canned tomatoes or tomato puree but the taste won’t be the same.

Traditionally, brudet is prepared on a stone-lined fireplace in a clay pot. Today, this is a rarity but if you have all of the necessary equipment, we strongly recommend you to try preparing brudet this way.

The secret of the perfect brudet is not to mix the stew but occasionally shake it.

When cooking the fish, only cook it until halfway done before adding it to the stew.

You might be tempted to add more pieces of fish than what’s mentioned in the recipe but don’t because this can make your brudet too dry.

Strainer

Boiling Pot

Cutting Set

Did you ever try brudet? How did you like our Croatian brudet recipe? If you tried to make our recipe, don’t forget to leave us a rating and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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