The term soup is very old and has been found in texts since the 200s: it derives from the Latin "minestrare", which means "to administer" and also "to serve at the table". This word has taken on a somewhat worse meaning over time, perhaps because it is often used as a synonym of soup; but soup is not the same thing (although an ancient proverb says "if it's not soup it's wet bread"...).
The soups then are liquid, they have more broth and among the ingredients they include crusty bread. The soup is a dish of popular origin, we find it in all European restaurants that call it on paper soup in Spanish, Soupe in French, Soup in German.
But it is tradition for us that each region reinvents it, depending on the foods it has available. And, thus, we transform the soup into soup because it can be both in broth with pasta and dry.
And if in France the very renowned bouillabaisse, which means “to boil over low heat”, is a stewed fish soup – made up of at least four types of fish, very particular and very tasty – in Italy this becomes “fish soup".
Among these, there is the extraordinary fish soup Nino Graziano, a great chef from Palermo who only makes it with lobster or other shellfish. Yes, because the genius and inventiveness of our chefs in the kitchen does not respect the science of the recipe, but continually invents personal creations that are not always exciting in terms of taste expectations and pleasure for the palate: but when they get it right…, then , we scream with pleasure and there's no bouillabaisse that holds: like the soup of Romulus at the port of Anzio.
Seeing it on a plate doesn't make a good impression, due to the color and compactness of the thick broth, but for the taste it recalls the famous and traditional "fish soup” tested at the Merè Besson in Cannes, a restaurant with traditional Provençal cuisine, a “cult” place for gourmets and a gastronomic reference point for stars during the Cannes film festival.
Walter Regolanti – chef and patron of this historic restaurant overlooking the port of Anzio – plays and talks with the catch, in the sense that he expresses aloud the thought of what he can achieve with that fish he has in his hands, and that we will never find on the menus of restaurants offering fish-based menus.
His soup of fish, chickpeas and "mixed" pasta is an unrivaled and superb creation made with fish unknown to the usual buyer, such as gardonie, manfroni, coccetti, weever, sgavioni, perchie, and then fragolini, bream, marmore, di small size. A balance created with a personal technique for dosing vegetables weighing a kilo between celery, carrot, onion, mixed aromatic herbs, extra virgin olive oil and salt. And to all this add hours and hours of intense work.
We could cite an essay or a thesis to define it, but it makes it, and it is worth more for us, to call it "Walter's soup", an iconic journey in the world of food for its greatness of taste and immortality for how it manages to enhance the "mazzama" , that is the poor fish!!
And for those who want to try their hand at making it, we add their recipe.
Fish soup recipe, chickpeas and mixed pasta
Ingredients for four people:
– two kg of mazzama fish, i.e. all those unsold fish, unknown to the usual buyer such as gardonie, manfroni, coccetti, weever, sgavaioni, perchie, fragolini, bream, marmore of small size,
– 1 kg of chickpeas soaked the day before.
– 1 kg of celery, carrot, onion, mixed aromatic herbs, extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste.
– 400 g. of mixed pasta from Gragnano.
Procedure:
in a large pan, prepare a base with extra virgin olive oil, vegetables and chickpeas with salt and paprika, when cooked, blend, sift and set aside. In a large pot, pour 5 liters of water, the bones of the previously filleted and boned fish until crushed.
Then pass everything through the chinoise.
Take a saucepan and pour half of the spinach broth, the blended and puréed chickpeas.
When the mixture is boiling, pour the mixed pasta and cook it, taking care to add the previously prepared fish fillets at the end of cooking, adding salt, paprika, extra virgin olive oil and possibly two drops of lemon if necessary.
Recommended wine? Local shit, between Antium or Divine Providence and good appetite.
