Pesce all’Acqua Pazza (Fish With White Wine and Cherry Tomatoes)

I’ve been making another version of this recipe, also found in Times Cooking, from Marcella Hazan. It’s also titled Pesce All’Acqua Pazza, but parenthetically explicated as “Fish in Crazy Water.” It has no onions or white wine, but does have fennel seeds, which I feel really make the dish.

I didn’t have white wine, so I substituted high quality balsamic vinegar, it turned out beautifully. I also left out the sugar. I didn’t have fresh or cherry tomatoes either so I just used Rao’s Homemade Tomato Basil pasta sauce.

A well seasoned cast iron skillet can handle a quick simmer of something acidic, like tomatoes. It’s the all-afternoon simmering of a tomato-based sauce that you want to avoid. A stainless skillet would work just as well but if all you have is cast iron, don’t be afraid to use it for a recipe like this.

This indeed was a great week night meal. Just as described it came together quickly and worked just as well with cilantro (which I had in the frig) vs the basil. Served with a side of sautéed sliced potatoes. Definitely on my list to cook again!

Delicious, easy to make, and (excepting the fish) pantry ingredients! Perfect for Christmas Eve (even if you don't do the feast of the seven fishes). (We passed on the sugar).

Made this with Mutti canned cherry tomatoes bc I didn’t have enough fresh cherries. If anything, it came out richer & sweeter without needing any added sugar. Can’t recommend the Mutti canned tomatoes more highly

Everytime there is a recipe with tomatoes in a cast iron skillet everyone suggests using something else because cast iron can't handle the acid. Not true!! Don't be afraid of the cast iron skillet it can handle a little acid. If it does take off some of your seasoning its easy to re-season, simply clean it, oil it and then set it on the burner at medium temp until it starts to smoke, Done! Delicious recipe, we enjoyed it in our cast iron pan knowing we would get some extra benefit of iron

Delicious and so simple! Used cocktail tomatoes (a tad bigger than cherries) and they released so much juice that there was no need to add water, which only intensified the flavor. Shout out to Joe from Landing - we had this on Christmas Eve as part of our seven fishes feast!

This was delicious. I used cherry tomatoes on the vine and did include the sugar because, well, it's January. I made a half recipe for two of us and followed the recipe as written, except for searing the fish (halibut) in cast iron and then switching to another pan for the rest. We had this with herbed couscous in a pasta bowl so it all kind of mixed together. Lots of flavor for not much work! We will absolutely make this again.

No, as I understand that anything acidic will damage the seasoning. I have read comments by people claiming their seasoned pan can stand anything, but, in the case of this recipe, I would suggest using another type of skillet, stainless, for example.

This simple dish is actually one of my favorite things I've ever cooked! So delicious. Because of the few ingredients, high quality is key here. Highly recommend doing as suggested in NYT's note and get some bread - I opted to lightly toast my bread plain, then added olive oil, salt, & pepper after toasting. That raw extra v olive oil only added to the beautiful flavors of the dish. Also highly recommend using La Crema's Sauvignon Blanc as the wine. Delicious.

wonderful! Doubled sauce (though not the olive oil) and used about 1.25 lbs cod, 1 lb shrimp. served over polenta with parmesan (M. R. Schulman oven recipe x 1.5). Great combo. Our palates were perfectly happy with just poaching the fish and skipping browning. Fantastic drizzled with Calabrian Chile oil.

I thought it was not a good idea to cook tomatoes in cast iron?

I made it as written (including the sugar) and it was fabulous! I'll be making this again and again!

We made this dish for an easy after-work supper, exactly as written, served over tri-color quinoa and loved it. Had some leftovers (dish makes for 4, we're 2); served today over elbow macaroni that had been tossed with a bit of good olive oil, sprinkled with a nice feta and a bit of chopped fresh thyme - wow! Definitely adding this recipe to the rotation, and looking forward to theme and variations. Thank you!