Sopa de Pescado Cántabra

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5-liter pot or olla
• •Fine mesh sieve
• •Large heatproof bowl for straining stock
• •Immersion blender or potato masher
• •Fish tweezers or clean fingers for checking small bones

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the stock

   Rinse the fish heads and bones quickly under cold water. Check that the gills are gone; gills make a stock taste grey and bitter, and no amount of tomato fixes that. Put the heads and bones in a heavy 5-liter pot with the 2 liters cold water, the leek green top, carrot, parsley stems, bay leaf, and 4g of the salt. Bring it up slowly over medium heat, skimming off the foam as it rises.

   Ask the fishmonger to split large heads and remove the gills. This is not fussiness. It is the difference between a clean fish broth and a pot that smells tired before you begin.
2. 2

   Keep it gentle

   As soon as small lazy bubbles break the surface, lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes. Do not let it roll. The stock is the backbone of the soup, and fish bones give what they have quickly. Cook them too hard or too long and they give bitterness instead of depth.

3. 3

   Strain and pick

   Set a fine sieve over a large bowl and strain the stock without pressing hard on the bones. Let the heads cool just enough to handle, then pick off any good flakes of fish and set them aside. Be patient here and watch for small bones. Discard the bones, skin, vegetables, parsley stems, and bay leaf. You should have about 1.5 liters stock; add a little water if you are short.

   If the stock tastes clean but light, that is fine. The sofrito and bread are still coming. If it tastes bitter, the bones boiled too hard, and the soup will carry it.
4. 4

   Cook the sofrito

   Wipe out the pot and set it back over low heat with the olive oil. Add the chopped onion and the white and pale green leek with a pinch of salt. Cook slowly for 18 to 22 minutes, stirring now and then, until the vegetables are soft, dark gold at the edges, and sweet. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pull the pot off the heat, stir in the pimentón for 10 seconds, then add the grated tomato or canned tomato. Return to low heat and cook 12 to 15 minutes, until the tomato is thick and the oil begins to show around the edges.

5. 5

   Bind with bread

   Add the sliced day-old bread to the sofrito and turn it through the oil and tomato until it softens. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble for 2 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add the strained fish stock, stir well, and simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the bread has mostly dissolved and the soup looks rust-red and thick enough to coat a spoon. Blend briefly with an immersion blender for a smoother soup, or mash with a spoon for the rougher home texture.

6. 6

   Finish with fish

   Add the raw fish pieces and the picked fish from the heads. Keep the soup at a gentle simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, just until the fish turns opaque and flakes when pressed. Taste for salt. If the soup is thicker than you like, loosen it with a splash of hot water, not more wine. Let it rest off the heat for 5 minutes so the bread settles into the broth.

7. 7

   Serve in bowls

   Chop the parsley leaves and scatter a little over each bowl. Finish with a thin thread of olive oil. The soup should be deep, glossy, and spoonable, with flakes of white fish showing through the tomato and bread. Serve it with plain bread for mopping the bowl. Nothing clever needed.

Chef Tips

• •Buy the bones first, not last. Hake heads give gelatin, monkfish bones give body, and cabracho gives that rocky, red-fish depth Cantabria likes in this soup. No cabracho? Redfish, rockfish, sea robin, or scorpionfish are the closest. Cod or haddock frames work, but the broth will be cleaner and less powerful.
• •Do not use oily fish bones here, no mackerel, sardine, or bonito frames. They turn the broth heavy and strong in the wrong direction. This soup wants white fish bones and rockfish.
• •A winter tomato with no smell is not worth grating. Use good canned crushed tomato instead, and cook it down until the oil shows. Sourcing wins. A tin with proper flavour beats a hard red ball every time.
• •The bread is not garnish; it is the binder. Use day-old rustic bread with some body, not sweet sandwich bread. Too little and the soup drinks thin; too much and it sits like paste. Ninety grams is enough for six bowls.
• •If you have no fish bones at all, use 1.5 liters of good unsalted fish stock and add the white fish at the end. The soup will be lighter and less Cantabrian in its bones, but it will still feed you well. Do not try to fix it with cream.
• •A young dry white from the north suits this best. If a Cantabrian white is out of reach, a clean Albariño or Txakoli will do the work without getting in the soup's way.

Advance Preparation

• •The fish stock can be made 1 day ahead. Strain it, cool it quickly, cover, and refrigerate. Use it within 24 hours, or freeze it for up to 1 month.
• •The sofrito can be cooked 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Warm it gently before adding the bread, wine, and stock.
• •For the best texture, make the soup base ahead but add the fish pieces only when serving. Cooked fish firms as it sits, so a fresh 5-minute finish gives a better bowl.
• •Leftovers keep 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water if the bread has thickened the soup overnight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)