Rape a la Marinera

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy lidded cazuela or frying pan, 28 to 30cm
• •Mortar and pestle or small food processor
• •Fine grater for the tomato
• •Instant-read thermometer, optional

Instructions

1. 1

   Purge the clams

   Dissolve the 30g salt in 1 litre cold water. Add the clams and leave them in a cool place for 30 minutes so they release their grit. Lift them out rather than pouring them into a colander, which would send the sand back over them. Rinse and scrub the shells. Discard any cracked clam and any open one that does not close when tapped.

   Do not leave live clams soaking for hours. Purge them shortly before cooking, then keep them cold while you build the sauce.
2. 2

   Pound the picada

   Warm 15ml of the olive oil in a wide cazuela or heavy lidded frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the whole garlic clove and almonds. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring, then add the bread and fry for another 2 minutes until everything is evenly golden. Lift it all into a mortar. Add 8g of the parsley and 75ml of the fish stock, then pound to a slightly coarse paste.

   A small processor works if you have no mortar, but stop while a little texture remains. Nut butter gives you a heavy sauce; picada should dissolve into it.
3. 3

   Cook the sofregit

   Return the cazuela to low heat with the remaining 35ml olive oil. Add the onion and 2g of the sea salt. Cook for 15 to 18 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is dark gold, soft, and almost jammy. Add the three chopped garlic cloves and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato and cook for another 12 to 15 minutes, until it has darkened, tastes sweet rather than raw, and a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a clean path. This slow base is the floor of the sauce. Rush it and the whole dish tastes thin.

4. 4

   Reduce the wine

   Raise the heat to medium and pour in the white wine. Scrape up anything caught on the bottom and let the wine bubble for 4 minutes, until reduced by about half and no raw alcoholic smell remains. Add the remaining 325ml fish stock and simmer gently for 8 minutes so the stock takes on the sofregit's sweetness.

5. 5

   Thicken the sauce

   Stir the picada into the simmering stock a spoonful at a time. Cook gently for 4 minutes, stirring around the base of the cazuela, until the sauce lightly coats the back of a spoon but still runs from it. If it becomes too thick, add hot water 15ml at a time. Taste, but do not add more salt yet. The clams still have their say.

6. 6

   Cook the monkfish late

   Dry the monkfish thoroughly and season it with the remaining 4g sea salt. Set the pieces in the sauce in one layer and spoon a little sauce over them. Hold the pan at a gentle simmer for 3 minutes, without stirring. Add the drained clams, cover, and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, until the clams open and the thickest monkfish piece is opaque, springy, and reaches 63°C in the centre. Shake the cazuela once by its handles instead of turning the fish. Discard any clam that remains closed.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Take the cazuela off the heat as soon as the monkfish is done. Let it stand for 2 minutes, then taste the sauce and correct the salt only if it needs it. Chop the remaining 2g parsley and scatter it lightly over the top. Bring the cazuela straight to the table. The sauce should pool around the fish with a glossy, spoon-coating finish, ready for bread.

Chef Tips

• •Ask the fishmonger to remove every strip of grey membrane from the monkfish. It tightens during cooking and can pull the flesh into a hard curl. Keep the head and bones if they are offered; they make an excellent fumet.
• •Frozen monkfish is a sensible buy far from the coast. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator on a rack over a plate, then dry it well. If you use thick hake loin instead, add it with the clams and cook for only 4 to 5 minutes; hake is more delicate and will flake if moved.
• •Use fresh tomato only when it smells ripe at the stem and is worth eating. Out of season, canned whole plum tomatoes are the honest choice. They give the sauce a deeper cooked flavor and a little less freshness, which is better than asking a pale winter tomato to do work it cannot.
• •Use unsalted or low-salt fish stock. Clams release salty liquor as they open, so seasoning the finished sauce before they go in is how a careful cook ends up with a sauce nobody can eat.
• •Small hard-shell clams are best here. Cockles can replace them and cook a minute sooner, but they taste brinier and release more sand, so purge and rinse them carefully.
• •Serve with country bread and the same dry white wine used in the sauce. A Xarel-lo from Penedès or a dry Garnatxa Blanca suits the almond, shellfish, and garlic without covering the monkfish.
• •Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and eat them the next day. Reheat at the gentlest simmer only until hot; the sauce keeps well, but monkfish grows firmer each time it is cooked.

Advance Preparation

• •Fry the bread, almonds, and whole garlic for the picada up to 24 hours ahead. Keep them covered at room temperature, then pound them with the parsley and stock shortly before cooking.
• •The sauce can be prepared through the picada step one day ahead and refrigerated once cool. Reheat it to a gentle simmer, loosen with a little water if needed, and add the raw monkfish and clams only when the table is ready.
• •Clean and portion the monkfish on the morning of cooking, then keep it covered in the coldest part of the refrigerator. Salt it only just before it enters the sauce.
• •Buy the clams the day they will be cooked. Store them in a colander over a bowl in the refrigerator under a damp cloth, never sealed tightly and never submerged overnight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 400g)