The perfect fish stew

This stew has a really deep flavour – if you’re not afraid of raw garlic, add more to the parsley pistou. You can either stir it in at the end of cooking or leave it in a separate bowl for everyone to help themselves. Accompany this dish with good bread, butter (or olive oil, but I like butter here to temper the Mediterranean flavours a bit), and a clean fennel-based salad, if you like

Ingredients 

8 tablespoons olive oil

2 red bell peppers, deseeded and thinly sliced

4 large Spanish onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons thyme leaves, finely chopped

2 tablespoons rosemary leaves, very finely chopped

3 bay leaves

2 large pinches saffron strands

1 teaspoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika

20 new potatoes

250ml white wine or Fino sherry

1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes, drained and chopped (or 4 fresh ones, skinned and deseeded)

600ml fish stock

100g ground almonds, lightly toasted (optional)

1kg firm white fish in large pieces

1kg mussels or clams

salt and pepper

for the pistou

2 garlic cloves

60g flat-leafed parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped

5 tablespoons olive oil

Method
Warm the olive oil in a casserole. Add the bell pepper, onions, thyme, rosemary, bay, saffron and paprika and cook gently, without letting them colour, until the vegetables are very soft, stirring regularly to prevent sticking and burning. Warning: this will take 30-40 minutes.

In a separate saucepan, boil the new potatoes in salted water until nearly cooked, about 10 minutes depending on their size.

Turn the heat up on the onions, add the wine and let the alcohol bubble off, then reduce the heat again and add the tomatoes and fish stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, stirring in the almonds if you’d like a thicker sauce, and season well. You can do all of the above up to a day in advance, then cover and store in the fridge until you’re ready.

Fifteen minutes before you’re ready to eat, bring the sauce back to a gentle simmer. Meanwhile, using a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic and parsley together with some salt and the olive oil until you have a paste.

Add the fish and shellfish to the sauce, making sure the white fish is covered in sauce – the shellfish can sit on the top to steam if needs be. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the potatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and parsley paste, then taste and season if necessary. Switch off the heat and leave the stew to stand for a further 5 minutes before serving.

Joanna Weinberg has written cookery columns for The Times, Red and currently Condé Nast Traveller. She has written two cookbooks, How to Feed Your Friends with Relish and Cooking for Real Life, published by Bloomsbury, and runs Kitchen Table Cookery at The Talbot Inn, Somerset.