Brodetto alla Fanese con Pesce Adriatico

Ingredients

• 400 g triglie (red mullet), small, whole, scaled and gutted
• 300 g seppie (cuttlefish), small, cleaned, bodies scored
• 300 g canocchie (mantis shrimp), shell-on, whole
• 300 g scorpano (scorpionfish), small, whole, scaled and gutted
• For the soffritto
• 1 large onion, finely sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 400 g tomatoes, ripe, peeled, roughly chopped
• 80 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• To finish
• 1 generous pinch saffron threads, bloomed in 60 ml warm water for 10 minutes before use
• To serve
• 4 thick slices bread, rustic, grilled

Method

1. 1
   Pour the olive oil into a wide, deep pan set over a medium flame. Add the onion and garlic. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, season with salt, and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes. The soffritto is ready when the oil has separated at the edges, the onion has entirely collapsed, and the base smells deeply sweet and savoury — not sharp or raw.
2. 2
   Lay the seppie and canocchie into the soffritto in a single, unhurried layer. Pour over enough warm water to barely cover the fish — approximately 500 ml. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cook, uncovered and undisturbed, for 10 minutes. The seppie are ready when they have lost their translucence and yield to gentle pressure from the back of a spoon at the pan's edge.
3. 3
   This is where the dish lives or dies. Lay the scorpano carefully over the surface of the stew. Do not stir. Do not move the pan sharply. Cook at a quiet simmer for 5 minutes. The flesh of the scorpano will just begin to separate from the backbone at the thickest point of the collar — the fish remains whole and composed in the broth.
4. 4
   Lay the triglie gently over the surface, again without any stirring. Add the bloomed saffron water, pouring it in a slow ring around the edge of the pan so as not to disturb the fish. Cook for 3 minutes. The broth will turn a clear saffron gold and the triglie will be just opaque through to the bone — their skin intact.
5. 5
   Place a slice of grilled bread in each wide, shallow bowl. Ladle the brodetto with care, distributing all species equally, and spoon the saffron broth over and around. The broth should be fragrant with saffron and sea the moment it meets the warm bread.