75g/3oz fresh brown crabmeat
3 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
75ml/2½fl oz white wine
1 tablespoon Pernod
1 bay leaf
1 small fennel bulb, roughly chopped
1.5 litres/2½ pints water
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, carrot, celery and leek and cook gently for 3-4 minutes, until beginning to soften. Add the fennel seeds and saffron strands and stir through for a minute. Add the harissa and tomato purée, then tip in all the fish, including the crabmeat, and cook gently for about 10 minutes.
Stir in the chopped tomatoes, white wine, Pernod, bay leaf and fennel. Season with a good pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper, then add the water and simmer for about 30 minutes. Purée the soup with a hand-held blender or in a jug blender. If you prefer a very smooth soup, pass it through a fine sieve as well. Reheat gently, taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve.
Zuppa di pesce
Italian fish stew
Practically every region of Italy has its own recipe for a fish stew, from the brodetto alla Vastese of Abruzzo to the Genoese buridda from Liguria. This one, however, is my favourite. With its dried chilli, tomatoes and slices of crusty bread, it is similar to cassola, the famous Sardinian fish stew. Giorgio
Serves 4
50ml/2fl oz olive oil
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
1 sprig of sage, chopped
1 teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100ml/3½fl oz white wine
400g/14 oz baby octopus, cleaned and cut into pieces
8 small squid, cleaned and cut into 4 pieces each
200g/7 oz plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
600ml/1 pint fish stock
24 clams
24 mussels
8 large peeled raw prawns
400g/14 oz monkfish fillet, sliced sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve:
4 slices of Tuscan-style country bread
1 garlic clove, peeled
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the rosemary, sage, chilli flakes, onion and garlic and sauté over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Pour in the wine and simmer until it has completely evaporated. Add the octopus and cook for 10 minutes, then add the squid and tomatoes. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, scrub the clams and mussels under cold running water and pull the beards out of the mussels. Discard any open clams or mussels that don’t close when tapped lightly on the work surface.
Add the prawns, clams, mussels and monkfish to the pan and simmer gently for about 7 minutes. Discard any mussels or clams that haven’t opened, then taste and adjust the seasoning.
Rub the slices of bread with the garlic clove and place them in 4 large serving bowls. Ladle the soup on top and serve immediately.
Mackerel escabeche
Escabeche sgombro
Both Giorgio and I are mad about vinegar-based sauces with fish, except he calls them agrodolce and I generally use the French term, escabeche. Basically they’re pretty much the same thing. In this dish the vinegar cuts through the oily quality of the mackerel, leaving you with something that sings in your mouth. Tony
Serves 4
tablespoon sunflower oil
8 mackerel fillets, skinned
2 lemons, thinly sliced
1 orange, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil 1 garlic clove, peeled
1 bay leaf, torn
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
6 tomatoes, deseeded and cut into 1cm/½ in dice
50ml/2fl oz white wine vinegar
500ml/17fl oz white wine
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan, add the mackerel fillets and cook for 30 seconds on each side. Remove from the pan, arrange in a shallow dish in a single layer and put the lemon and orange slices on top.
Put the olive oil, garlic clove and bay leaf in a saucepan and heat gently. Add the carrots and onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the diced tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Pour in the white wine vinegar and white wine, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. Pour this mixture straight over the mackerel; it should cover the fish. Leave to cool completely, then cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving, garnished with toast, if liked, and accompanied by potato salad.
Insalata tiepida di gamberi e borlotti
Warm prawn salad with borlotti beans
Prawns and beans make one of
