Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Stocafi
Monaco's stockfish stew, simmered in tomato, wine, olives, and herbs until rich and tender.
Monégasque · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 75 min
~127 cal · 5g protein · 15g carbs · 4g fat · 4g fiber · 7g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Stocafi is a traditional Monegasque dish that, like much of the principality's cooking, reveals its deep Ligurian and Mediterranean roots. It is built on stockfish, cod air-dried until hard as a board, a preserved staple of the old Mediterranean larder that must be patiently rehydrated over days before it can be cooked.
Once softened, the fish is slow-cooked in a Provencal-style tomato sauce with black olives, garlic, herbs, and often a splash of eau-de-vie, until it turns tender and drinks up the flavours around it. Some versions add potatoes to round it into a fuller stew.
It is humble preserved fish transformed by long, gentle cooking into something rich, aromatic, and warming, exactly the alchemy that Mediterranean thrift cooking excelled at. On the border of France and Italy, stocafi tastes of both, and of Monaco's own seafaring past.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1.5 lb stockfish or salt cod, soaked and cut up
Hard to find? fresh cod, heavily salted for 48 hours and rinsed - holds together in the stew, but the deep, almost gamey flavour of air-dried stockfish is lost
5 tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup black olives
2 tbsp capers
1 tbsp herbs de Provence
1 bay leaf
a small bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
1
Soften the onion and garlic in the olive oil.
2
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, herbs, and bay leaf and simmer into a rich sauce.
3
Add the soaked, softened stockfish (or hearts of palm and mushrooms).
✎ Chef’s note
Stockfish must be soaked for a day or more, changing the water, before it goes in. Rushing the soak leaves it tough and overly salty.
4
Simmer gently for 45 minutes, until the fish is tender and the sauce thick.
5
Stir in the olives, capers, and parsley and serve with potatoes or polenta.
Monaco tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Monaco. Barbagiuan means Uncle John in Monegasque. The parcels are filled with chard and ricotta, sometimes with rice or leek, then fried, and they belong particularly to the national day on 19 November rather than to any ordinary Tuesday.
🗺️
Monaco. Monaco's cuisine is Mediterranean Niçoise, socca chickpea pancakes, stuffed vegetables (barbagiuan), and stocafi salt-cod stew. Olive oil, herbs, and the Riviera coast define an elegant, sun-drenched table.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Monaco
SoccaA thin, crisp-edged chickpea-flour pancake baked hot and eaten in torn pieces with black pepper.
Pan BagnatA round loaf soaked in olive oil and packed with a Niçoise salad of tuna, egg, and vegetables, a Riviera lunch.
Fougasse MonégasqueA sweet anise-and-orange-blossom bread topped with nuts and tiny red-and-white sweets, Monaco's festive bake.
Browse all Monaco recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Monaco meal
Fougasse MonégasqueDessert
Pan BagnatLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Stocafi?
Monaco's stockfish stew, simmered in tomato, wine, olives, and herbs until rich and tender.
Where does Stocafi come from?
Stocafi is a Monégasque dish from Monaco, Monaco.
Can Stocafi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Stocafi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Stocafi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Stocafi take to make?
About 100 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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