There are many fish restaurants in Anzio, and they are all delicious. The appetizers are very famous in all these restaurants, such that people come from the surrounding areas.
One of my family’s favorite restaurants has always been “Da Romolo al porto,” whose owner knew my father well.
Children often don’t like fish, and Romolo brought this soup to my sister Mirta when she was still a child, coaxing her with “I invented it just for you!”
In reality, this is the typical fishermen’s soup which, like all Lazio dishes, is seasoned with plenty of pecorino cheese.
The soup should be made with the leftover catch: small, white fish that cannot be sold. Obviously, in Rome it is unthinkable to find them, and therefore I make it with small fish that are used for frying, such as red mullet, sole, and cod. This is the recipe we make at home.
Easy Fishermen’s Soup
- Preparation time: 50 minutes
- Ingredients for 4 servings
- Difficulty: Easy recipe
- Ingredients
- 140 g of broken spaghetti
- 1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 500 g mixed fish
- 1 onion
- 1 celery
- 1 laurel leaf
- 1 bunch of thyme
- 1/2 glass white wine
- Salt to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Grated pecorino to taste
- Instructions
- Fillet the fish. Rinse the bones and heads well. Soak the cod bones for a long time to remove all the blood.
- Prepare the fish stock. In a pan with a little oil, toast the bones and heads over high heat. Add the chopped vegetables.
- Deglaze with wine.
- When the alcohol has evaporated, add the tomato paste, the aromas, and about a liter of ice water.
- Leave to simmer over low heat for about thirty minutes.
- Blend everything with a mixer, then filter the broth through a chinois.
- Add the pasta to the broth and, when almost cooked, the fish fillets.
- Season with salt and serve with grated pecorino.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Filleting the fish seems complicated, but it isn’t—especially when the bones are then used for the broth. It’s a very useful and simple way to practice.
- In summer, when the tomatoes are tastiest, I make the broth. Then, in a small pan with a little oil, I make a sauce of fresh tomatoes which I then add to the soup.
- Blue fish is generally not used for broth because it has a lot of blood. For this reason, it is best to leave the bones in the water, changing it a couple of times before using it.
- The wine must be of good quality. The Roman saying “what you put in you get out” applies to everything.
