Monday, April 11, 2011

Zuppa di Pesce (Fish Soup)

So God love the Mother in law! She knew that today was a really busy day with NO chance of doing anything other than sit in a corner and cry with the stress and the uncontrollable desire to pull my hair out at every possible opportunity, she went to the port this morning and got me fresh fish knowing how much I love it and how yesterday I missed out on my weekly feed of fish with my Sunday lunch....so arrive home this evening starving. I swear I was starving! I've been up from 6 am and have been surviving on espressos since then.....and VOILA the other half produced my vice. FISH! So I decided to go for a zuppa di pesce so that I can take some to work tomorrow for lunch! I LOVE it cold too! So here we are lads and lassies. Mother in laws Fish Soup!


Ingredients for 4 people:
1 kg of mixed fish: redfish, gurnard, john dory, king prawns, tender squid and cuttlefish, shrimp
500 g of mussels
500 g clams
3 cloves garlic
500 g of tomato pulp
1 bunch of parsley
Black pepper
salt and extra virgin olive oil to taste.
 
Preparation:
  1. Clean and scale all fish, cutting the fins off, eliminating the innards. Open them and separate them from the head and bones. In a little water cook the heads and bones for the fish broth and keep warm to add to the rest of the soup.
  2. Clean the mussels and clams and cook in a pan with a little oil and a whole clove of garlic until they are opened, remove the garlic.
  3. Clean and cut the cuttlefish and squid, prawns and wash well.
  4. In a large pot brown the garlic in oil, then add the tomatoes and crush with a fork, finely chop the parsley and add most of it, keeping a little to season at the end, and season with salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 5 minutes, now add the cuttlefish and squid and cook for a few minutes before adding the rest of the fish.
  5. Sieve the fish broth and add to the soup.
  6. Stir carefully so you don't break fish up and cook for about 15 minutes. Add the mussels and clams to the sauce.
  7. Meanwhile, prepare some sliced bread and toast in the oven, if you like it you can rub a clove of garlic over one side of the toasted bread.
  8. Add 2 slices of bread at the bottom of each plate, then divide the fish and place it in the plates on top of the bread, and pour the hot broth. Otherwise serve the bread on the side (like I do)
  9. Sprinkle with a little parsley and serve  

 
 

7 comments:

  1. Love fish soup, from bouillaibesse to cioppino ...yours looks quite delicious - great "suocera" too!

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  2. Why thank you Chris. I must admit that I am lucky with the mother in law. She is a gem! Hope you enjoy the soup and come back to let me know what you think of it!

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  3. You are lucky that your mother in law makes such beautiful meals. This soup looks perfectly comfortable and tasty!

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  4. Delicious! Your mother in law is very sweet :)

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  5. Katerina, she is a great cook and has taught me so much! Like all Italian mammys she likes simplicity and flavour and it reflects in her cooking!

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  6. Vincent, thank you I shall add the blog!

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