Zuppa di Pesce on a cool fall night.

Zuppa di Pesce is fantastic with a nice bold red wine on a cool night. Here's mine for 2:

Sauce:
3 cloves garlic; 2 minced, 1 sliced paper thin
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
9 tomatoes
2 cups dry riesling
4 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp marjoram, rough chop
juice of one lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Boil water in a stockpot and blanch 7 of the tomatoes, whole. Peel the tomatoes, toss their peels and roughly chop the tomatoes. Chop the other two tomatoes raw.
Sweat the garlic and onion. Once they become soft, add pepper flakes. Let pepper flakes cook and release their heat for a minute, then add the wine. Let this reduce by half. Add tomatoes and any juice you can collect from cutting them up. Let the tomatoes cook and breakdown for about 30 minutes. After the tomatoes breakdown a bit, add the vegetable stock. Let this all reduce to about half, about an hour and a half, then using a submergion blender or a normal blender to puree the sauce slightly. Place the sauce back on the heat and add the remaining 2 chopped up tomatoes. Let cook until these tomatoes start to break down, take off the heat and add parsley, marjoram, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

Fish:
6 U/12 Shrimp
6 large Sea Scallops
4 mahogany clams
1 live lobster

The tricks to my Zuppa di Pesce lie in the fish. First, all of it must be as fresh as you can get it. Then, I cook off the lobster early, when I'm starting the sauce. I put aside its claws and tail, eat the other meat as a snack, then place its shell, liver, and the shrimp shells in the sauce while its reducing. I cook off the shrimp and scallops seperately, but after they're done I deglaze the pan I seared them on and add those juices to the sauce as well.
I place the clams right in the sauce and allow them to open inside the sauce. Remove the shells from the lobster and shrimp before eating, obviously

Make yourself a couple slices of garlic bread made from some fresh italian bread, place a generous amount of the sauce in a bowl, add your fish and lobster, dip your bread, and enjoy a nice glass of red wine!

reply to post by sleepypoet


Sounds delicious thanks for posting. Any substitutions you would recommend if one does not have any marjoram in their spice rack and if I'll be using chicken instead of fish/lobster? (seafood is not my cup of tea)

Originally posted by kittendaydreamer
reply to post by sleepypoet

 

Sounds delicious thanks for posting. Any substitutions you would recommend if one does not have any marjoram in their spice rack and if I'll be using chicken instead of fish/lobster? (seafood is not my cup of tea)

edit on 19-9-2011 by kittendaydreamer because: (no reason given)

Oregano is similar to marjoram, just a little stronger.

Looked at the recipe again, basil would also work, but it would change the flavour. It goes good with chicken.