The bisque is the ideal broth for crustaceans. It can be made with all types of shellfish.
The most famous is scampi: it serves as a base for the famous creamy risotto that brings us directly to the Italian ‘80s.
Bisque
- Preparation time: 90 minutes
- Ingredients for 1,5 l or 1.5 US quart of bisque
- Difficulty: Easy recipe
- Ingredients
- Heads and shells taken from 2 kg or 5 lbs of scampi
- 1 small carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 onion
- 1 small can of peeled tomatoes
- 1/2 glass of white wine
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- 3 L or 3 US quarts of iced water
- Instructions
- Wash the vegetables and cut them into large pieces.
- In a pan filled with oil, toast the shells, the claws, and the heads. During this process, the heads and claws should be crushed with a wooden spoon so as to release all the flavors present.
- Add the onion, carrot, and chopped celery and continue toasting for a few minutes. Add the wine allowing the alcohol to evaporate. Add the peeled tomatoes and simmer the sauce for about twenty minutes. Then, pour in the iced water and cook for another thirty minutes. Blend everything with the mixer and then filter with a chinois.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Roasting is an important phase because we have to reach the Maillard reaction (and therefore exceed 275°F) to give more flavor, but we absolutely must not burn the mixture.
- When adding the wine, you must be careful of the flame. It is advisable to turn off the flame momentarily.
- Blending with the mixer before filtering the broth allows you to capture all the flavors. A domestic mixer does not have the same power as a professional one, so it is useful to break down the heads first, especially the claws, with a meat mallet and scissors, as otherwise you risk breaking the mixer.
