Zuppa di pesce di zia Maria – Aunt Maria’s fish soup recipe

AUNT MARIA’S FISH SOUP SOUP

I would like to recreate my Zia Maria’s family fish soup, but my version of it has fewer ingredients than she used. Our family loves fish soup and Zia Maria makes the best. When I was a boy we knew the fishermen well and would end up with all the fish they were unable to sell. I remember this soup bubbling away in the large pot, the aroma wafting through the village. This was always a feast and I would rush home to watch my aunt cook and sometimes help with shelling the mussels and clams. Suddenly all the family would reunite in the kitchen, including our pet dog and cat, all anticipating lunch.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

500g/1lb 2oz clams, left in salty cold water for 1 hour, then any open clams or broken shells discarded
500g/1lb 2oz mussels, scrubbed and wispy beards pulled off and any open mussels or broken shells discarded
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ red chilli (chile), finely chopped
250g/9oz baby octopuses (thawed if frozen), cleaned and left whole
250g/9oz squid (calamari) (thawed if frozen), cleaned and sliced, head left whole
200ml/7fl oz/scant 1 cup dry white wine
400g can cherry tomatoes
salt
8 king prawns (jumbo shrimp), shell on if you like
2 handfuls of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
200g/7oz fillets of dogfish (also called huss)
4 slices of country bread, grilled and rubbed with garlic, to serve

Preparation instructions:

Place the clams in a saucepan, cover with a lid and cook on a high heat for about 3 minutes, or until the shells have opened. Do the same with the mussels. Discard any clams or mussels whose shells remain closed. Scoop out and reserve the flesh of about half the clams and mussels and discard the shells. Keep the remainder in their shells and set aside. Reserve the cooking liquid from both the clams and mussels.

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic and chilli and sweat for 1 minute. Add the octopuses and squid and stir-fry for a minute or so, then add the wine and allow to evaporate. Add the tomatoes and salt to taste, then reduce the heat to medium, cover with a lid and cook for 20 minutes.

Add the prawns and half the parsley and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Add the reserved liquid from the mussels and clams and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Using a wooden spoon, make some room at the bottom of the pan and put in the dogfish fillets. Leave to cook for a couple of minutes, then add the cooked clam and mussel flesh and shellfish and continue to cook for a further 3 minutes, until all of the flavours have infused and the fish is cooked.

Remove from the heat, sprinkle with the remaining parsley and serve with slices of toasted country bread and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Recipe from the “Gennaro: Let’s Cook Italian: Favourite Family Recipes” cookbook by Gennaro Contaldo.