Zuppa di pesci

Courtesy Brad Ball

This a great soup for summer or winter and lends itself well to fresh line fish and a few other green listed crustaceans. Serve it with fully loaded garlic bread.

Ingredients

Ingredients for soup base

2 medium red onions, sliced
3 inside celery ribs, sliced
5 garlic cloves, bruised to release aroma
Handful of dill herb, chopped
1 chilli, medium heat, seeds removed
2 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs thyme
4 tablespoons browned flour
350 ml Sauvignon Blanc
2 tins whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
1.4 L fish stock
70 ml fish sauce

Ingredients for finishing

400 g green listed line fish. Gurnard, angelfish or yellowtail. Cut into 2cm pieces
8 tiger prawns, shelled
12 black mussels, cleaned
150 g calamari strips/rings

method

Place onions, celery, garlic, dill, chillies, parsley and thyme into a large pot with enough oil and sauté until soft, but no colour.
Add the white wine and reduce until almost gone.
Add the flour and cook out for 1 minute.
Add the tomatoes fish sauce and fish stock.
Bring up to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes with a lid on.
Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 1 hour.
Pass through a sieve, crushing the veg to extract flavour. Keep until necessary.

Place required amount of soup in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Add the fish and prawns. Once half cooked, add the mussels and squid.
Finish with spring onions and tarragon or dill.