← Nouns Cooking · French

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 Leek, sliced
• 1 small fennel bulb, chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 1 kg mixed white fish and fish heads/frames (gurnard, cod, bream, whiting), cut into chunks
• 3 Tomato, chopped
• 2 tbsp Tomato purée (paste)
• 1 pinch Saffron
• 1 piece strip of orange zest
• 2 sprigs Thyme
• 1 Bay leaves
• 1.5 l water or light fish stock
• 1 tbsp pastis or brandy (optional)
• 1 clove garlic clove, for the rouille
• 1 egg yolk, for the rouille
• ½ tsp cayenne or piment d’Espelette
• 120 ml olive oil, for the rouille
• 1 Baguette, thinly sliced and toasted
• 60 g Gruyère, grated
• Salt

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and cook the onion, leek, fennel and garlic for 10 min until soft.
2. Add the fish and stir for 5 min until it starts to break up. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, saffron, orange zest, thyme and bay, then pour in the water and bring to the boil.
3. Simmer briskly for 30 min, until the fish has completely fallen apart. Fish out the bay and zest.
4. Blend everything (bones included if you have a powerful blender, otherwise remove the large bones first), then push it through a sieve, pressing hard to extract all the flavour. Return to the pan, add the pastis if using, season and keep hot.
5. For the rouille, mash the garlic with a pinch of salt and the cayenne, stir in the yolk, then whisk in the oil slowly until thick, like mayonnaise.
6. Serve the soup very hot. Let everyone spread rouille on the toasts, float them in the soup and sprinkle with cheese.

Tips

• The rouille contains raw egg yolk, so use very fresh eggs and avoid it for pregnant women and small children.
• Ask the fishmonger for heads and frames; they give the deepest flavour for very little money.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Great British Chefs BBC Good Food 196 Flavors (rouille)