Culinaria Italia - Italian Food and Cooking

 Zuppa di pesce alla Brindisina. A couple of weeks ago I got together with a couple of friends in order to cook a fish ’soup’ . Soup is a bit of a misnomer, as there isn’t really that much liquid involved. It was an all day project involving a trip to the fish market in the morning, lots of preparation in the afternoon (why are mussels so time consuming to clean? I’d happily eat them every day if I didn’t have to spend an age scraping and pulling off various unsavoury parts ) and cooking and eating in the evening. I glad to say it was worth the effort. Serves 4 
  

600 g scorpion fish (or any other firm white fish - we used hake) — cleaned and definned.
350 g squid — cleaned and cut into pieces.
150 g cuttlefish — cleaned and cut into pieces.
300 g mussels — cleaned and debearded.
200 g clams — scrubbed
300 g tomatoes — peeled, deseeded and chopped.
1 stick celery — finely chopped.
1 onion — finely chopped.
1 sprig parsley — chopped
1 clove gar;ic — finely chopped
1 chilli — finely chopped.
1/2 glass olive oil
4 slices stale bread

• Soften the onion and celery in a large pan. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until the start to break down and form a sauce.
• Add the squid and cuttle and cook until they start to become tender - 10-20 minutes.
• Add the mussels, clams and chilli, stir and then lay the fish on top. Cover and cook over a low heat until the fish sarts to flake (check from time to time with a fork).
• To serve, place a slice of bread in the bottom of a bowl, sprinkle on a little garlic and parsley and spoon the soup on top.