Precious, elegant and superbly tasty is the sweet and sour fish soup created by Andrea Pasqualucci, starred chef of the Moma restaurant in Rome.
Forget the classic, full-bodied and traditional one that (almost) everyone likes so much, precisely because of its full and intense structure, created by fishermen when fishing with fish considered waste because it is small and unsellable. It can be considered as an anthropological recipe because, handed down over time, it becomes the main dish of home cooking and the flagship dish in fish-based restaurants. The French chefs of Provence have immortalized it by calling it Bouillabaisse, which simply means "simmered boiling", but which becomes the sophistication of an apparently simple dish but which brings to mind the flavors and smells of the sea and the sun, being one of the dishes undergoes continuous transformations depending on the fish available or the creativity of chefs in the mood to amaze: like this one, by Andrea Pasqualucci, who gives away his recipe and tells us how he made it, why doesn't it follow the usual soups that we know so aggressive and sometimes botched.
How did you come up with it?
“Meanwhile, a lot of technique applied to childhood memories linked to the sea and tradition. Inside the dish I use all the catch according to availability, always on the 12-13 different types of fish, it's all soup fish: weever, scorpion fish, croutons, mussels, clams, razor clams, just sautéed squid, the steamed one , the almost raw crustacean, the mussels and clams open at the moment, the grilled sole. In short, based on the fish I have, I use certain cooking methods.
I don't use fishbones to make the broth, I just use the soup. So I take boxes of fresh soup, use the pulp and make the classic fish soup using the broth from the soup. On the side, I make a sweet and sour sauce in which there is a base of onion, garlic, capers, lots of oregano, a little star anise and coriander. This is a very tight sauce, very thick because it is blended with the vinegar and sugar so it becomes sweet and sour. Then there is the union of these two elements: the classic liquid of fish soup combined with this sauce, passed together so as to make an extract of these two sauces: in this way everything takes on a more intense colour, a more intense whole: c 'it's a peak of acidity, there's a little sugar, a little salt, obviously all the concentrate of the fresh fish soup made with all the fish and not the bones.
When the dish comes out, in the soup there are clams, molluscs, razor clams - based on availability - made express; hence, seawater is released within the soup. These three concentrations create the explosion of flavours. Furthermore, when I have shellfish, especially red prawns, the heads – instead of making the classic bisque – are lightly steamed and then passed through the extractor. This is how this intense red coral comes out, which gives a brighter color and a strong crustacean flavor, however, much sweeter and less sandy and bitter than a bisque. So from each fish I extract what I can and put it together, add salt and complete it at the table with a parsley oil to use the classic parsley soup: all fish, croutons and that's it. It is served at the table with the hot broth poured from a jug and the fish semi-raw on one side only to complete the cooking with the broth alone.
Fantastic, but did I feel a garlic oil taste that was too present? “And yes, because there's a good base of garlic, the parsley oil, there's chilli pepper, so it reminds me a bit. Let's say that fish soup and fish in general call for garlic: the soup must be tasty, it must be pushy, the soup is good when it has a lot of push because the broth with the spoon must be intense: otherwise you eat tasty water which – in my opinion – knows little.”
It's not really a simple recipe given the amount of technique needed to make it, but it is precisely for this reason that it becomes unique and for those who enjoy getting away from classicism, the advice is to go and experience new emotions in the place where it was born. Also because you have an expert sommelier like Federico Silvi at your disposal who will offer you the right wine to match such as the 1997 Vouvray from the Loire, a super white to close the circle with maximum pleasure.
Sweet and sour fish soup recipe
Ingredients:
80 g oil
20 g chilli oil
150 g chopped white onion
10 g minced garlic
50 g white vinegar
2,500 g peeled tomatoes
6 pcs star anise
750 g fish stock
18 g salt
40 g sugar
20 g minced capers
1,5 g oregano
4 g saffron
Method
Saute the onion and garlic in the oil without burning it. Deglaze with the vinegar and cover immediately, holding it.
When evaporated, add the peeled tomatoes and star anise, cook over high heat until the sauce weighs 2,500 g. add all the remaining ingredients at the end of cooking off the heat.
Season with salt and sugar and saffron, add the fish broth and the extract of 1 kg of red prawn heads. Sift
15 g morsels of
Seppia
Octopus
Mullet
Weever
Sole
gurnard
Redfish
cobs
3 mussels
5 clams
Sear the fish lightly on the skin side and serve with 3 croutons, glasswort and fresh fennel.
Open the molluscs in the soup and remove the shells. Complete the dish by pouring the hot soup with parsley oil at the table.
