Sopa Marinera Asturiana

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy soup pot or olla
• •Fine sieve
• •Blender
• •Wooden spoon
• •Shellfish brush

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the shellfish

   Peel the prawns, keeping the heads and shells separate from the tails. Scrub the mussels and clams well, and discard any that stay open when tapped. Salt the fish pieces lightly and keep everything cold while you build the broth.

2. 2

   Toast the shells

   Warm 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a wide pot and add the prawn heads and shells. Cook them over medium-high heat for 6 to 8 minutes, pressing the heads with a wooden spoon until the oil turns orange and smells sweet and briny. Add 500ml of the fish stock, simmer 10 minutes, then blend this shell mixture carefully and strain it hard through a fine sieve, pressing for every drop.

3. 3

   Cook the sofrito

   Wipe the pot and add the remaining olive oil, the onion, leek, garlic, and bay leaf. Cook low and steady for 18 to 20 minutes, until the vegetables are soft, dark gold, and sweet. This sofrito, the slow onion base, is the floor of the soup; rush it and the broth tastes thin.

4. 4

   Thicken with bread

   Stir in the grated tomato and cook 8 minutes, until it loses its raw smell and the oil shows at the edges. Add the torn stale bread and let it soak up the oil for 2 minutes. Take the pot off the heat, stir in the pimentón and saffron, then pour in the wine or sidra and return it to the heat for 2 minutes so the alcohol cooks off.

5. 5

   Build the broth

   Add the strained prawn-head stock and the remaining fish stock. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the bread collapses and thickens the broth. Remove the bay leaf, blend the soup until smooth, then strain it if you want it finer. Taste for salt now, not before; shellfish and stock can already carry plenty.

6. 6

   Cook the seafood

   Bring the soup back to a gentle simmer. Add the clams and mussels, cover, and cook 3 to 5 minutes, lifting them out as they open. Add the fish pieces and prawn tails and cook 2 to 3 minutes, just until opaque. Do not let the pot boil hard now, or the fish tightens and the shellfish turns rubbery.

7. 7

   Finish and serve

   Return the opened mussels and clams to the pot, discarding any that did not open. Let the soup rest off the heat for 5 minutes so the bread-thickened broth settles. Serve in deep bowls with a little chopped parsley if you like and a piece of bread beside it. Pésalo, no lo adivines, and it behaves.

Chef Tips

• •Whole prawns with heads are the best buy here. The heads are not decoration; they are the flavor of the soup. If you can only find shell-on prawns without heads, use them and replace 500ml of the fish stock with a strong shellfish stock.
• •Monkfish is very Asturian in spirit, firm enough to stay in pieces in the hot broth. Hake is easier to find and works well, but add it gently and late because it flakes faster.
• •Use stale bread, not fresh sandwich bread. Day-old rustic bread thickens the soup cleanly; soft fresh bread can make it gummy.
• •Clams and mussels must smell clean and close when tapped. Sourcing wins here. A tired shellfish makes a tired soup, and no saffron will save it.
• •Sidra natural gives a northern edge if you have it. A dry white wine is the plain substitute, and what changes is small: the soup will taste a touch rounder and less sharp.

Advance Preparation

• •The prawn-head stock can be made 1 day ahead, strained, cooled, and refrigerated.
• •The bread-thickened base can be made up to the end of blending 1 day ahead. Reheat gently and cook the seafood only just before serving.
• •Clean the mussels and clams the same day you cook them; do not leave scrubbed shellfish sitting for days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 430g)