Many years ago, Lee and I lived in southern Spain on the Atlantic coast (which is where my skincare journey began too). We would visit the local market every week and we were always completely spoilt for choice with an abundance of fresh fish and seafood, locally caught around the Bay of Cadiz. Even luckier for us, the prices were reasonable too.
As a result, one of my go to dishes at the time was Zuppa - the delicious fish and shellfish stew, bursting with tomatoes and fennel, packed with whatever fish and seafood was in season at the time.
I loved it so much, I cooked it pretty much every Friday night - and even today, whilst it is more now a special occasion dish for Lee and I, it’s still one of my absolute favourites.
You can also use any combination of shellfish (nice additions include mussels, clams and scallops). You can also swap the Red Mullet for monkfish, gurnard, sea bass or sea bream. Red Mullet is my favourite though – it’s full of flavour and also full of skin-loving omegas.
It’s really worth making the shellfish stock if you can – it adds enormous depth and flavour to the dish but you can use shop bought fish stock - almost all the major supermarkets will stock this now.
Serve in big bowls, with good bread or boiled potatoes, and lashings of garlicky mayonnaise (see recipe below for making homemade aioli!)
½ litre roasted shellfish stock (see recipe below or swap for fish stock)
1 fennel bulb, sliced finely
2 banana shallot, cut lengthways into quarters
Glugs of olive oil
4 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste with a little salt
400g roasted cherry tomatoes – or use a tin
4 fresh bay leaves
Pinch of saffron strands – placed in a little hot water to release the flavour (optional)
Splash of pastis or pernod (optional)
200ml dry white wine or dry sherry
salt & pepper
zest ½ orange
100g fresh brown crab meat
16 large raw prawns (you will have used the heads and shells to make the stock) allowing 4 per person (you could also use some scallops – use the roe for your stock)
1 kilo mussels
4 red mullet fillets (or swap for your favourite fish, such as bass, monkfish etc)
Gently sauté the shallot and fennel in a little oil, until soft then add the garlic and stir. Add the cherry tomatoes and bay leaves, turn up the heat a bit and squash the tomatoes.
Turn the heat up some more, add the pastis and wine and allow to bubble for a couple of minutes.
Next, add the shellfish stock, orange zest and saffron and turn the heat down to low.
Stir in the brown crab meat, season with salt & pepper. Allow to simmer gently until you have a lovely sauce. You can do this in advance and then re-heat it when you are ready to serve and finish the dish.
Add the prawns and mussels to the pan and put a lid on – leave for 3 – 4 minutes. Lift off the lid and check to make sure the mussels have opened.
Make sure the skin of the fish is dry and season both sides with a little salt and some pepper. Whilst the mussels are cooking, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add the fillets skin side down. Cook for 2 minutes and place the fillets into the zuppa, skin side up. Turn off the heat. The residual heat will finish cooking the red mullet.
Serve at the table in the pan you cooked it in (you can also remove the mussels and clams from their shells to make it easier to eat).
Serve with lots of bread, lemon and aioli.
Enjoy! x
Roasted Shellfish Stock
Make this stock earlier in the day or a day in advance and keep in the fridge. It also freezes well.
prawn shells and heads, scallop roe if using, red mullet head if your zuppa includes red mullet, crab shells
5 garlic cloves
2 banana shallots
2 good big ripe tomatoes
fennel tops and fronds
200ml dry white wine
handful black peppercorns
few bay leaves
parsley stalks
water
Roast the prawn shells and heads in a hot oven with the garlic smashed a little, the banana shallots roughly chopped (no need to remove the skin – it adds colour and flavour), tomatoes cut into quarters and some fennel tops.
Roast for about 20 – 30 minutes but keep your eye on them – you don’t want this to burn.
Remove from the oven and tip into a large saucepan. Deglaze the roasting tin with 200ml of dry white wine and scrape the pan. Tip everything into the saucepan. Add a few peppercorns, 4 bay leaves and some parsley stalks and add 1.5 litres of water.
Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 30 – 50 minutes. Skim off any scum with a ladle. Strain the stock into a large jug – pressing down on the shells to extract as much juice and flavour as possible. If you want you could also puree this in a blender and then strain through a fine sieve – this would give you a much thicker stock.
Aioli
2 egg yolks
2 – 3 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste with a little salt
pinch of salt
1 tsp dijon mustard
50ml extra virgin olive oil
200ml sunflower oil
squeeze of lemon juice
some black pepper
Put the eggs, garlic, mustard and salt in a small food processor and blend.
Whilst it blends, very slowly add the olive oil – drop by drop to start with until the sauce has emulsified.
Once emulsified, you can then add the olive oil more quickly.
Season with lemon juice and add a little more salt and a little pepper to taste.
