(brodetto di trote )

Ingredients:

• 4 trouts (or as much trout as you and your guests can eat)
• two onions
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• chopped parsley
• canned tomatoes or 3-4 fresh tomatoes
• salt
• pepper
• Vegeta
• two spoons of vinegar
• 50ml oil
• 100ml wine
• 100ml water.

Well, now that Lent has begun, it is the perfect period to cleanse the mind and also the body from all the heavy food eaten during all those feasts. When our people fast, they mostly want to eat sea fish and find a million and one ways to prepare it: they fry it, crumb it, marinate it etc. The Solin trout can also be prepared in all these ways. You only need to cast a fishing rod into the nearby Jadro River (of course, during the fishing season), and those who don't fish can pay a visit to our trout farm.
This is precisely what we did here at Medo's kitchen, because we decided to show you no less than three ways of preparing trout. This time, we relocated Medo's kitchen to his new restaurant Gašpić, located at the Salona graditelj company premises, in the Solin neighbourhood of Priko vode, where it is even more enjoyable to cook. As soon as I met Medo's assistants, Mara, Branka and Jasa, I knew that that evening we were both going to have a great conversation and eat well. The trout simply has to be amazing if Jasa is involved in cooking the dish because she is the sister of the King of the upper reaches of the Jadro River (I'll leave you to guess as to who I'm referring to).
First Mare poured 200ml of oil in a large pan and added the sliced onions. After the onions were well cooked (i.e. when the onion 'died out' in Medo's words), we added 2-3 finely chopped garlic and parsley (you can use as much as you like). Bring this to the boil and add 3-4 fresh tomatoes or canned pelati - chop them first so that the juices are released. Cut the trout in three or four pieces, depending on their size and add them to the sauce. Add a teaspoon of salt, the same amount of pepper, two teaspoons of Vegeta and two spoons of vinegar to stop the fish from falling apart. Finally, pour bevanda (a local drink made by mixing wine and water) over the dish. Add 100ml of wine and the same amount of water to the trout and sauce, explains Medo, reminding us of some other culinary tricks.
"You are supposed to turn it," demonstrates Medo and grabs the pan by its handles to show that instead of stirring, you turn the pan by the handles.
Also, Mare said that once you add the trout to the sauce, cook the dish for another twenty minutes. Jakov finally caught up with his colleagues' eating, and even turned the pan himself to prevent the sauce from burning.

Source: „What Will I Cook Today?" –  Notes from Medo's Kitchen
Text: Mia Sesartić, Recipes: Zoran Kljaković Gašpić – Medo