Fish Soup (Julie Marsh)

1 clove of garlic

Large bunch of Italian parsley

3-4 ripe red tomatoes (diced)

250g - ½ kilo green (raw) prawns in shell

3-4 fillets of white fish e.g. ling, garfish

Fish heads (1 or 2) (garfish works really but or any other fish head would be ok)

I x 500g packet of small pasta.

Salt & pepper

Peel prawns discarding tails but keeping ½ of the prawn heads. Set peeled prawns to one side and prawn heads in a separate bowl with garfish heads.

Finely chop garlic, parsley and tomatoes.

Steam the garlic and parsley for a few minutes by placing them in a dish in a steamer. After 5 minutes I sometimes add an anchovy fillet to introduce the seafood flavour.

Then add the diced tomatoes and continue with the steaming. Frequently stir the tomatoes until they “dissolve”– this takes a further 10-15 mins. The tomatoes should reduce to a “thick liquid”. Reserve.

Now make the fish stock in a solid saucepan. Add prawn heads and garfish heads (or any other fish head you can find) and fill the saucepan to the ¾ level with water. Add  the tomato sauce and salt & pepper to taste. There is no reason why you cannot add any other spice you feel will add to the flavour. Increase the heat and bring it to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for ½ - ¾ of an hour. 

While that is cooking, bring another saucepan of water to the boil and cook very small pasta according to the packet directions. The pasta usually cooks in about 10 minutes so I do this towards the end of the cooking time for the soup.

When there is about 5 minutes of cooking time left for the soup add the peeled prawns and the fish pieces as they only need a short time to cook.

Once pasta is cooked drain the water and return the pasta to the saucepan in which it was boiled. Using a fine sieve/strainer or paper strainer pour the fish broth into the saucepan containing the pasta. The sieve collects the fish heads, prawn heads, any tomato and parsley pieces and any small fish bones. Place the cooked prawns and fish pieces into the broth and serve. Garnish individual plates with fresh chopped parsley.