Fish Stew

Dice or slice the fennel, onion, celery, leek and shallots.
Crush and chop the garlic, In a wine
thick based pot place the herbs, citrus peel, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, chilli and saffron if using.
Gently warm over a low heat.
When the pan begins smelling strongly of the spices, but before they begin to colour add the olive oil followed by the vegetables plus the bay, thyme and parsley stalks, all tied up together.
Season with salt and cook on a medium heat, slowly, allowing the vegetables to cook but not colour
After twenty to thirty minutes, the vegetables should be soft.
Add the tomatoes, season with a little salt and cook for another twenty minutes, allowing the tomatoes to cook and thicken.
Once the general ‘wetness’ of the tomatoes have cooked out, add the glass of white wine and again cook until the sauce thickens up and the wine isn’t so strong in the sauce.
Pour in the fish stock and bring to the boil, drop the heat down and cook slowly for thirty minutes, allowing all the flavours to mingle and become friends.
The stew will need seasoning of
salt, pepper, and probably lemon juice before using.
The acqua pazza is now your own to use however you wish. An easy way is to get a few fillets of fish and some clams from a fishmonger – around 300g of fish per person.
Cut the fillets into inch or so wide strips, or thicker, season with some salt and add them all together along with the clams to the cool stock, cook very slowly until the fish can easily be pierced with a skewer and the clams are open.
Finish a glug of olive oil and some lemon juice.
You can add anything extra to the base – tinned white beans, or chickpeas, potatoes or whole broad beans left in their shell to braise slowly.
Always eat with bread to mop up all the juices.